Warriors placing trust in Stephen Curry’s greatness

He may be a three-time NBA champion and two-time MVP, but Friday night’s performance at TD Garden may have been Stephen Curry’s finest moment for the Golden State Warriors.

Curry had proven himself as the best player on the floor over the first three games of the NBA Finals, yet in a time of desperate need for his perilous team, he expanded his dominance to heights scarcely seen.

Stephen Curry’s 43 points and ten rebounds led the Golden State Warriors to a monumental game four win with the series headed back to the Bay tied at 2-2.

We’ve seen these virtuoso Finals performances before – think Giannis Antetokounmpo just last season. But from a 6-foot-3 guard? At that size, to control an entire game from the perimeter, is almost unheard of at this point of the season.

But that’s who Curry is – a unique superstar who’s defied the norms of NBA history and changed the game forever. As the season has progressed, and as the playoffs have advanced, the Warriors are placing more and more trust in their all-time great player.

There are a couple of reasons for that – firstly, there’s an obvious and common correlation between the rise in stakes and the amount you lean into your best player(s). Second and more importantly though, Golden State simply hasn’t received consistent production from other avenues.

It means the Warriors’ motion offense, a staple of their dynasty period, has reverted back to a more traditional system that revolves around their one superstar player. That’s not to say the motion offense doesn’t revolve around Curry, but more so that it’s designed to take advantage of his gravitational pull and off-ball movement.

Credit has to go to Boston in some respects. Their defense, including drop coverage in pick-and-roll action, has bottled up almost every player outside Curry. They’ve dared Golden State’s maestro to beat them with incredible off-the-dribble shotmaking.

But Curry’s matched that challenge and thrown out his own, single-handedly clawing back the Warriors’ home-court advantage.

During the regular season, 34.1% of his three-point attempts were pull-up threes, of which he made 37.4%. Now in the Finals, 42.6% of his threes are pull-up attempts, of which he’s making an outrageous 50%.

49.4% of his overall field goal attempts came after three or more dribbles during the regular season. That’s increased to 64.9% against the Celtics, while his field goal percentage on these has increased from 44.2% to 52.3%.

Curry has always been an underrated isolation scorer, mostly because it’s never been emphasized in the Warriors system. While he still hasn’t had the same isolation opportunities as other superstars, the individual frequency on this play type has increased from 7.6% in the regular season to 11.3% during the playoffs.

Along with the increase in isolation, Curry is also getting a far greater percentage of field goal attempts in the pick-and-roll action. He averages two more field goal attempts as the pick-and-roll ball handler in these playoffs, with the attempts rising from 5.1 to 7.1 per game.

Boston’s defense has been a contributing factor, yes, but Steve Kerr and the Warriors coaching staff are trusting Curry’s greatness to lift them to a championship.

Whether it will be enough remains to be seen, yet for now, a historic all-time player is producing historic, all-time performances.