On January 6, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Lone Ranger at home to meet the Warriors, this game is very special, because after the game to carry out Nowitzki's jersey retirement ceremony. For the Warriors, the game with the Lone Ranger has always been difficult to play. Previously, the Warriors ranked first in the West with 29 wins and 7 losses, and the Lone Ranger ranked sixth in the West with 19 wins and 18 losses, and from the first quarter, the Warriors were not quite right, and the Warriors only scored 39 points in the first half! Although the Warriors recovered in the third quarter, the fourth quarter was pulled apart by the Lone Rangers. In the end, the Lone Ranger won 99-82 at home to the Warriors, the Warriors ended a two-game winning streak, and the Lone Ranger ushered in four consecutive wins.
Stats, warriors, Curry 5 of 24, had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, Wiggins 17 points and 3 rebounds, Green 2 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, Payton Jr. 11 points and 11 rebounds, Anderson 9 points and 5 rebounds, Damian Lee 7 points. On the Lone Rangers' side, Doncic had 26 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, Brunson 15 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists, Smith 17 points and 9 rebounds, Hardaway Jr. 14 points and 3 rebounds, and Powell 8 points and 6 rebounds.
It has to start with Curry's performance in this game. Played 36 minutes, 24 of 5, including 9 of 1 three-pointers, a total of 14 points, if the last game to play the Heat, the whole game 17 out of 3, including three-pointers 10 of 1, because the Heat defense is good, or Curry is too tired, then today's Curry performance, there is no excuse to speak of, is poor! Throughout the first half, Curry was 1 of 10, including 5 of 0 three-pointers, and in the first half, Curry missed four layups! Either the basket is hated, or the basket bounces and pops out, or it doesn't stick to the frame, is this still the Curry we are familiar with? Although Curry hit the three-pointer early in the third quarter, but the shot after that was even more unreliable, the impact basket was broken, challenging Powell and Smith were fruitless, playing to the fourth quarter, Curry himself was not confident, even less than Poole and Peyton Jr. played resolutely!
It must be said that Curry can't open this point, the Warriors can beat some weak teams, but if they want to win some competitive teams, it is unlikely. The most intuitive example, when Curry found a three-point feeling, Doncic's response was more resolute, and Doncic's ability to break through the killing, perhaps in the eyes of the referee, is three levels higher than Curry, as long as the Warriors players have action, Doncic immediately goes to the free throw line, and the lone ranger can score more points, including Hardaway Jr., Fanny Smith, Anderson feel good. Although the Lone Ranger Porzingis could not play today, the Lone Ranger played very reasonably, rushed to grab rebounds, did not blindly shoot three points, did not give the Warriors a quick attack opportunity, in this case, if Curry only had a 5-of-24 shooting rate, then the Warriors could not do anything. Because Curry can't make a threat, teammates have a hard time getting space.
In fact, in the past 2 weeks, after Payton slowly replaced Poole as the starter, the Warriors' outside defense shortcomings were made up, but correspondingly, the Warriors' defensive ability in the alternate transition section was weakening. Iguodala does not play, the Warriors bench only has one Anderson is a desperate three, and people like Poole, Damian Lee, and Belitsa are not so good at physical confrontation, when the Lone Ranger launched a crazy counterattack in the first half of the fourth quarter, Kerr's rotation is still too rigid, or too slow, should be replaced by Wiggins and Peyton Jr. in advance to increase the intensity of attack and defense. And Curry should give up the idea of playing without the ball and play the role of tandem point, which the Warriors did very badly. In the last two games, the Warriors have had 39 assists, and today there are only 20.
For Curry, after two consecutive bad performances, he should wake up, playing without the ball can be, but his shooting rate is constantly declining, he has 10 assists in the last game, today there are only 5 assists + 5 mistakes, Curry is now slowly not confident, shooting is not resolute enough, to the basket is also hesitating, very undesirable. Otherwise, change your mind and become Curry holding the ball, to create scoring opportunities for teammates first, and Curry plays the role of the bottom. The day of Klay's comeback is getting closer and closer, but the Warriors are a bit out of play. This is not to question Curry's ability, but to have a problem with his mentality, and now the only person who can help Curry out of the predicament is himself.