Kevin Durant confirms he changed a couple plays in the huddle tonight to get a Steph Curry iso: “He had a mismatch and he was making shots over everyone tonight. Why even run plays?” pic.twitter.com/Kn8k0nAXp7
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 14, 2019
The play wasn’t all that abnormal. Stephen Curry threw the ball to fellow scoring champion and MVP, Kevin Durant, who tossed it back, despite his mismatch with a 6-foot-3 point guard. Curry, staring down 6-foot-8 forward Dorian Finney-Smith, took four dribbles, pulled up from 27 feet, and sunk a three-pointer. Durant glared at the Dallas bench. Curry shimmied.
The difference between this back-and-forth between Curry and Durant was the weight of the situation. Sunday night, the Warriors were tied with the Mavericks with about 48 seconds remaining. Curry drilled the go-ahead three that ultimately decided the game, giving the Warriors the 119-114 win and their fourth straight victory.
During his postgame press conference, head coach Steve Kerr divulged that Durant had been doing just that all night long — deferring to Curry, who finished with 48 points and made 11 threes.
“(Durant) knew Steph had it going,” Kerr told reporters, via Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “There were a couple plays I called for Kevin, and he said, ‘No, no, let’s flip it. Let’s go the opposite way with where they just changed spots.’ Those guys always have a great feel for what’s happening on the floor. KD is so unselfish, when he sees somebody going, he’s going to try to get him the ball.”
Durant’s explanation was simple.
“I always feel like, I know I have a feel for the game and I can see the flow of the game pretty easily,” Durant said postgame. “(Curry) had mismatches. He was making shots over everybody tonight. Why run plays when we can just give him the ball?”
That final line underscores an obvious truth. That, very frequently, Golden State’s collective talent is enough to overwhelm. They don’t always need to run plays or sets to achieve results. When one of their stars has it going, feed him. Kerr has given his players the freedom to call their own number, or that of their teammate.
Sunday night, Durant did that — both during timeouts and mid-play. Draymond Green felt the latter was more impressive.
“The plays are one thing,” Green said, “but as a player, I watch on the floor, and we run a play and KD gets iso with Jalen Brunson, which, I like that matchup. KD can score on just about anybody, let alone a 6-foot point guard. But he threw the ball right back to Steph and flattened out and Steph hit the three. That’s the play I like more. Changing the play in the huddle is one thing. To know you got a mismatch and you probably the best scorer in the world, and you give the ball back because you see Steph got it going, that’s the types of plays that win championships.”
Green has seen this a lot from Durant recently.
In Golden State’s 146-109 rout over Chicago Friday, Green recalled two plays highlighting Durant’s awareness and basketball IQ. The first: Durant blew up a play designed to open Bulls guard Zach Lavine on a back screen. The second: Durant forced a turnover despite Green getting caught on a screen.
“It’s little plays like that that no one will ever notice, but that’s how I know he is locked in,” Green said. “He is capable of making all those plays. He don’t do it all the time, which I don’t expect him to do it all the time, but when he’s locked in, he makez those plays, and he’s been making them, and he’s locked in throughout every aspect of the game.”
Sunday night was another example of the healthy relationship between Kerr and his players, built off respect and collaboration.
“The collaborative effort comes from just wanting to be successful each possession,” Durant said. “Coach calls great plays for us. We try to fine-tune the little details within those play sometimes, but he has the overall template we try to play (through). Guys have been in the system for so long, they can kind of see things before they happen, and just try to use your basketball IQ.”