While Stephen Curry was one 3-pointer away from tying Ray Allen’s record, the Warriors trailed by two. Instead of pulling up for history, Curry hesitated on the perimeter, drove past Myles Turner and finished with poise to tie the game with 48.5 seconds left.
The record, as Curry and the Warriors have repeated, pales compared to winning basketball games. So even when Curry missed his next 3, another potential record-tier, nobody blinked when Kevon Looney cleaned it up and finished inside.
No, Curry didn’t leave Indiana as the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-point field goals. He wasn’t even on the court for defense for Indiana’s final possession, and rightfully so: Gary Payton III bottled up Caris Levert to force a game-winning turnover. The Warriors (22-5), though, head to Madison Square Garden with a 102-100 win.
Here are three takeaways from Golden State’s tough victory:
History hanging over
For about a week now, the basketball world’s attention has turned to Curry and the looming 3-point record. He and the Warriors have mostly downplayed it, saying they’re not paying too much attention to the record. They shouldn’t let the historical significance affect their play.
But Golden State’s offense, as Curry approaches the record, has looked less and less fluid. In the first half against Indiana it looked particularly disjointed, with uncharacteristic turnovers and less ball movement than usual. Curry alone committed four turnovers in the first half, including a strange misfire out of a double team in which he appeared to panic and threw a pass into the first row. He’s seen thousands of double teams, and he rarely does that.
Curry missed his first two 3-point attempts, both of which were wide open. He appeared to hesitate for a beat on each before firing. He started 1-for-5 from deep, continuing his cold stretch — by his standards — to a 31-for-91 streak (34%).
When Curry got subbed out in the second quarter, he spent most of his time not on the bench, rather on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse floor getting his legs stretched out by a trainer.
Curry found his stroke a bit later on, hitting 5 of 15 3s and dropping 26, but the turnovers kept coming. He lost a ball out of bounds trying to turn the corner in the third traveled while trying to euro step in the fourth quarter. He finished with a season-high seven turnovers.
It’s quite possible Curry’s recent play has nothing to do with the looming record, but it seems like he — and the Warriors — may appreciate it being a thing of the past sooner rather than later.
Defending Sabonis
For the second straight game, the Warriors were tasked with defending a top-tier big man. And for the second straight game, Draymond Green got in foul trouble.
On Saturday, it was Joel Embiid who dropped 26 and 9 on Golden State. But the Warriors forced him into a relatively inefficient shooting night with a combination of Kevon Looney’s physicality and aggressive help from active help defenders.
Juan Toscano-Anderson and Jonathan Kuminga made a couple nice defensive plays against Sabonis in the first half, but if they stayed on him longer, Indiana likely would’ve concocted a solution.
Sabonis’ combination of craftiness and strength gave Looney and Green trouble. In the past, Golden State has played zone against more traditional big men, but they largely stayed away from that strategy despite Indiana’s lack of perimeter shooting.
Like Embiid, Sabonis had his way, recording 30 points on 12-for-17 shooting. Many of his buckets came from drop-off passes from Malcolm Brogdon. Sabonis was also tough on the glass. One of his six offensive rebounds kept alive a possession late in the fourth quarter and led to a Brogdon and-1.
With the recent report that Indiana may look to accelerate a rebuild and make their stars available, there’s been speculation that Indiana could move Sabonis or Turner. Although Turner is annually an elite shot-blocker, Sabonis is more skilled, and therefore more suitable to build around in the modern NBA.
A COVID-19 reminder
In a strange sign of the times, one official didn’t make it to the game due to health and safety protocols. So two referees, including a rookie official, were tasked with officiating the game by running up and down the court like high school refs.
The result was a disconnected game marred by technical fouls and stoppages. Perhaps the two officials were trying to overcompensate by calling more violations.
Draymond Green and Steve Kerr each picked up early technicals. Both teams got whistled for defensive three-second violations in the span of a minute. Just eight minutes into the game, the Warriors put the Pacers in the bonus.
Stretches of continuous play were rare.
In addition to the referee who missed the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was in health and safety protocol, making Lloyd Pierce Indiana’s active coach.
In Chicago, 10 Bulls are in protocol amid the Omicron variant’s surge. Their next two games have been postponed. The NFL is mandating employees to get vaccine booster shots, and a Premier League match was postponed amid an uptick in cases.
GSW coach Steve Kerr said pregame that the team is going to address the developing health concerns.
“Make sure everybody’s doing their best to stay safe,” he said.
