Stephen Curry played 38 minutes, sitting just 10. Jayson Tatum played a game-high 42 minutes.
Klay Thompson actually logged a Warriors’ team-high 39 minutes. Curry’s 38 were matched by only Draymond Green. Otto Porter Jr., Andre Iguodala, Jordan Poole, Kevon Looney and Andrew Wiggins were the other kay players in the Warriors rotation.
The Golden State Warriors are a better team with Stephen Curry on the court, and he could be open to logging more than 38 minutes.
The Big 3 led Golden State in minutes played, as they should.
However, it was clear that, when Curry and even the mere threat of his deep-shooting ability, wasn’t on the court, Golden State struggled to find its rhythm. The first few minutes of the second and fourth quarter were rough points for Golden State.
Entering the game with 9:35 left in the fourth quarter, Curry never truly picked up his first-quarter rhythm.
In the midst of a game-sealing fourth-quarter run, Curry struggled, missing all 3 of his attempts following the 6-minute mark in the fourth. He knows that the Warriors were the better team for most of the game, but at the end of the day, that didn’t matter.
“It’s about winning four games by any means necessary, and for 42 minutes, we did enough to win a game tonight, and that’s not how basketball works. I think everything starts to come on the table when you look at trying to get ourselves back in the series on Sunday and taking it from there,” Curry said via NBC Sports’ Tom Dierberger.
Curry was right too.
The last 6 minutes of the game, the Warriors imploded, and while he was on the court, he did little to quench the scoring hot Celtics. What’s even more discouraging is how the Warriors pulled away in the third quarter and gave that up by a difficult fourth-quarter stretch.
Moving forward, when it comes to Curry getting more minutes, he seems open to the ideal. “But it’s also understanding how the series develops, at most, we got six games left. Make the necessary adjustments,” he continued.
Those necessary adjustments might just have to be Curry finishing out quarters and playing heavier minutes. He’s the crux of the team’s offense and frees up better looks for everyone. After all, they’re just a few games away from the offseason.
The Warriors have tto make adjustments, not just offensive and for Curry, but also defensively. Unless they truly think Derrick White and Al Horford lighting them up from deep was a fluke, the Warriors must do better to defend the Celtics snipers.
It’ll be a game of chess pieces, and Curry logging heavier minutes to help the Warriors stay lethal offensively may be a key move head coach Steve Kerr makes.