Sports Weekly All Media Reporter Li Hui
The 34-year-old Stephen Curry is playing the greatest round of his career in the finals. He scored 43 points and 10 rebounds in G4, which is the best work in the history of Curry’s personal expedition in the finals.
Before the finals this year, Curry’s performance in the finals was often criticized. Except that he had never won the FMVP in the previous 5 games, his poor performance in some games was indeed unconvincing. A surprising statistic , Before this year’s finals, before G4 to be precise, Curry has never shot 50% in two consecutive finals games, and even before this year’s finals G3, he has shot in 12 consecutive finals games. Not 50%, including the first 2 games this year, 6 games in 2019 and 4 games in 2018.
Subdivided into specific games, Curry has played countless times in the finals. In G6 of the 2019 finals, Thompson scored less than 30 points in 3 quarters, Iguodala scored 22 points, and Green scored a triple-double. Under the circumstances, Curry only scored 21 points on 6-of-17 shooting, and missed a key three-pointer at the last minute. This year, in that great performance of Curry’s famous 47 points in a single game, his shooting The shooting percentage was also less than 50% (14 of 31), and more importantly, Curry did not lead the team to win that game, and did not even keep the suspense of the game until the last minute, so this is still difficult to call is his representative work.
Curry’s more classic hip-pulling battle in the previous finals is undoubtedly the 2018 finals G3. He only scored 11 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists on 3 of 16 shots in the whole game. 43 points + quasi-lore took away the game and ended the suspense of the finals MVP ahead of schedule.
Going forward, in the 2017 finals, Curry’s performance was his relatively best year before this year, but in Game 4, he only scored 14 points on 4 of 13 shots, and all the Warriors fans were reluctant. In 2016, Curry played even worse. He was at a disadvantage in direct conversations with Irving. In G1, he only scored 11 points on 4 of 15 shots. In the most critical tiebreaker, Green scored 32 points. Curry had only 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting, including missing two key three-pointers in the final moments.
In the 2015 Finals, the newcomer Curry played relatively well, but his 5-for-23 shooting performance in the second game also seriously affected his impression score and ultimately missed the finals MVP.
Above, we are only talking about Curry’s performance on the offensive end of the finals. Obviously, Curry’s performance is not stable enough. Such stability restricts him from competing for the finals MVP, not to mention on the defensive end, most of the time, Curry None of them are in the top three of the team’s greatest defensive contributions.
However, after this year, Curry finally had the opportunity to have a finals of his own. After 4 games in the series, Curry’s performance was almost perfect. In 4 games, Curry scored two teams in a single game. The highest player. At the same time, Curry shot more than 50% in two consecutive games in G3 and G4, which ended his previous embarrassing performance in this indicator. Of course, the most important thing is that Curry is very concerned about the game. In the second game, he scored 29 points and made 5 three-pointers to lead the team to tie the total score. In the fourth game, Curry even made 7 three-pointers in the team’s extremely difficult situation. He scored 43 points and 10 rebounds in the field, and once again helped the team equalize the total score with an epic personal performance.
From Curry, you can see the setbacks over the years have helped, and you can see that experience is really a good thing, as Curry himself said, this is his sixth finals Now, he was able to keep himself calm and confident, especially when he faced an opponent this year who was probably the weakest opponent he has ever faced in the Finals.
In the past, Curry played 5 finals, 4 times against James’ team, 1 time against Leonard’s team, they can not only have a good performance on the defensive end, but also scored 30 points on the offensive end It’s also like looking for things, but now, the Celtics’ double-third overall talent is excellent, but after the finals, the two have accumulated 8 games without even a single game of 30 points. Seeing such a teammate, Curry can undoubtedly express this. The sigh: I have even fought against James Leonard, and I am afraid of you two?
So, Curry resolutely shot those three-pointers, and finally pulled the building down. Of course, for Curry, from the instability of the finals in the past to the more leisurely walks now, the most important reason is not the opponent, but himself. In recent years, Curry has also suffered from injuries, and his age is also due to him. The problem that had to be ignored, so he made himself stronger, made himself more adaptable to playoff-level confrontation, and made himself better able to preserve his physical fitness. There is no doubt that without these increasing efforts to his own body, There is no Curry today.
Many things cannot be explained by common sense, just like Bjelica in the fourth quarter of G4. From a common sense point of view, he is the weak link of the team on the defensive end, but he successfully prevented Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s many attacks. ;From a common sense point of view, Curry has obviously had better teammates in the previous 5 finals. He should get better opportunities and be more efficient. To the contrary, the level of his teammates has declined visibly this year. Played harder than in the past, but it wasn’t.
Perhaps, a special player like Curry cannot be explained by common sense.
In the previous five finals, Curry failed twice and won three times, but the FMVP always missed him. The final title, Finals MVP, this time will only likely belong to Stephen Curry.
Can’t run away!
