NBA: Curry’s Return: The Magic Element

Stephen Curry made a comeback in Game 2 against the Pelicans – and led the Warriors to victory with an impressive performance. This performance was the latest proof that he is still the team’s most important player.

If Stephen Curry isn’t allowed to play basketball, he’s showing some strange behavior. “In practice a few days ago, he couldn’t stop running and jumping around making strange noises,” revealed Kevin Durant at the press conference after game 2.

Running around and jumping around – that’s how the long awaited comeback game of the chef began after almost six weeks of tormenting injury break. However, Curry was only allowed to do his exercise therapy from the bench, as coach Steve Kerr wanted to bring him into the game as a sixth man.

This was obviously not easy for the double MVP: He could not sit still for a minute, he talked a lot and waved various towels. He even got a chewing gum from a fan to fight his nervousness. That the Pelicans got the better start into the game may not have helped his mood.

After a good seven minutes he was finally released: Kerr sent him to the writing table to be substituted – and the Oracle Arena exploded, although it was not yet running smoothly for the defending champion. “It was incredibly loud,” Draymond Green subsequently stated, “although he hadn’t actually done anything yet.”

Curry made up for that quickly, though. In the first posession with him on the court he chased around two screens, got the ball and fired without hesitation a closely defended threesome over noble defender Jrue Holiday – Splash. Now the crowd raged for good.

A short time later, the 30-year-old delivered one of those plays that only he has up his sleeve in this frequency. First he dribbled on his foot, but grabbed the ball just in time before it jumped over the centre line to the Backcourt Violation. He casually tripped forward and took a threesome almost from the logo over Solomon Hill – Splash again.

Such actions as well as the emotions in the arena at the substitution showed once again that curry is still the heart of the Warriors. Sure, there’s Durant, one of the best scorers in NBA history. But he’s only playing his second season in the Bay Area and now stands for merciless efficiency instead of 45 points spectacles. Klay Thompson is a sober and ice-cold 3D specialist and Green symbolizes the fighter mentality that every champion needs.

But curry is way above that. He is the magician of the team, the showmaster for the special moments and the face of the franchise’s incredible success story, which could enter the finals for the fourth time in a row and celebrate its third title in the same period. Without Curry and his revolutionary wit all this would have been unthinkable.

And the Warriors may need him more than ever. Even though they easily survived the first lap – mainly thanks to their defense – despite his retirement. Even though they dominated Game 1 against the Pels.

Curry’s influence on his team can already be seen from the figures: In the 27 minutes he was on the pitch in Match 2, the Dubs had an outstanding offensive rating of 130.0 and 72.7 in the minutes without him, but the difference in the Regular Season (120.4 versus 106.1), in which Curry could only make 51 games due to various injuries, was not quite as extreme.

This has a lot to do with the fact that enemy defenses have to completely adjust themselves when it provides for spacings with its grotesque range. Plays like the wide three-way against Hill burn into each other’s heads, which are reminded: “Oh yes, it’s still these warriors with these crazy throws of even crazier spots.”

A few posessions after the threesome, the Pelicans provided direct proof of this phenomenon. Curry dribbled forward in a fast break and at least gave the impression that he could pull the trigger. In no time two defenders were with him, including Anthony Davis, who had previously mated Durant.

A simple ground pass on KD was the result – and a completely open threesome. On the one hand he didn’t go in, on the other hand such an open three-way would have been almost unthinkable for him without curry on the field. Instead, the reigning final MVP had to face a lot of double teams and other nice greetings from his opponent. This should now be the case much less frequently.

Durant was cold for a long time and scored 6/17 after three quarters, Thompson ended the evening at 4/20, which led to the realization that the Warriors would probably have lost game 2 and travelled to NOLA with an unpleasant 1:1 if Curry hadn’t made his strong comeback.

In the third quarter he came in a little earlier than in the first, because the momentum threatened to tip towards the guests. So what did Curry do? First he hit a closely defended catch-and-shoot triple for 68:68, shortly afterwards he sent AD into the air – also from downtown – and pulled the foul for three free throws, which of course all flooded in. The 11-2 run at this stage, which had a lot to do with Curry’s presence, brought about the last change in the game’s lead.

Coach Kerr was usually seen smiling contentedly during these phases – which is not often the case with him during a tight game. But of course he also knows that he now has significantly more options for the upcoming tasks after the return of his most important player.

Match 3 in New Orleans (Sat, 2am live on DAZN) Curry is expected to play in the Starting Five again. Its limit of around 25 minutes should then also be revised upwards. According to Kerr, this was in any case a restriction due to Curry’s condition and had nothing to do with his knee.

Then we see the champion again from the beginning in his magnificent form: with Curry’s energy, his shooting, his spacing, his magic. For all those hoping for an end to the Warriors dominance in this year’s playoffs, this is not good news.