Stephen Curry and the Warriors are set to face Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers in the elimination game (ninth seed versus tenth seed) for the Western Conference’s play-in tournament on April 15.
The 38-year-old Warriors superstar spoke to the media ahead of the game and previewed the upcoming climb out of the play-in tournament to make it to the playoffs. One reporter asked him about the difference between a player who excels in the regular season and one who saves his best for the highest-pressure moments of the postseason.
“Your success frames that because you don’t know who you are until you go through those reps. So, it’s really just production when it matters most. Some people cave, some people show up, some people are resilient and able to deal with one bad game and only leave it at one bad game and bounce back,” said Curry.
“The ability to key in on a strategy when you look across the court, and somebody knows exactly what you’re going to do, but you’re still able to do it, take advantage of the matchup, whatever it is. Like all those things kind of boil up to being a playoff-type player and enjoying those moments when the lights are bright, and there’s no running away.
“So you’re exposed in the playoffs,” Curry added. “There’s no hiding, there’s no running, there’s no catching anybody by surprise. And the guys that can overcome all of that and do it over and over and over again, you start to get that 16-game label.”
Over the 155 games that Curry has played in the playoffs, he has averaged 26.8 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 45.4% from the field and 39.7% from beyond the arc across 10 seasons.
The Warriors’ season trajectory was heavily derailed this year ever since Jimmy Butler went down with a right ACL injury and ended his season midway through January. Their hopes in the postseason heavily rely on Stephen Curry showing up in the highest-pressure moment for the franchise and pulling off a miracle.
Kawhi Leonard And Tyronn Lue Honestly Preview Facing Stephen Curry In The Playoffs
It’s not like the Clippers don’t have a scouting report and a game plan for facing the Warriors. They know that Stephen Curry will be the key focus of their offense, and their hopes to progress in the playoffs heavily rely on figuring out a way to counter the 38-year-old maestro.
Kawhi Leonard and Tyronn Lue both spoke to the media ahead of their matchups against the Warriors and mentioned their opinions on facing Curry in the playoffs. While Leonard was more humble, Lue had a hilarious response to his previous meetings with Curry.
“You know he’s one of the greatest players to play this game. Obviously, the play-in is way different than the NBA finals. You build so much during the playoffs to get to the finals, and this is for us to go into the playoffs,” said Leonard on the difference in facing Stephen Curry in the NBA Finals and in the play-in tournament.
“I mean, just try and see what he does well, like any other game, and see whether the Warriors do great defensively and offensively, and see if we could make a problem for them,”
“That’s great. Even if it’s a pickup game or anything, just be able to share the floor with a player like that. Being coached by Steve Kerr and also playing with Draymond, and you know, that unit over there has a championship pedigree. It’s a great opportunity. You can’t take it for granted. As I said, we’ve got to squeeze as much as we can out of this season,” concluded Leonard on how he feels about facing Stephen Curry.
Meanwhile, their head coach, Tyronn Lue, who has previously also faced Stephen Curry in the NBA Finals on three occasions as the opposing head coach (2016 to 2018), hilariously said he was sick of facing Curry in the playoffs.
“I’m sick of it, I’m sick of it,” joked Lue on facing Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr in the postseason. “He’s just a guy that can explode. He can score 50 if you’re not careful. He only had 24 in the last game, but he had nine three-point attempts.”
“We can’t let him get that many attempts up from the three-point line. We gotta try to keep him down as much as possible… We gotta be locked in to what we’re trying to do defensively.”
Lue has a 1-2 series record against Stephen Curry and the Warriors in the postseason. Both teams faced off in the regular season finale, where Stephen Curry finished with 24 points, six rebounds, and three assists while going 7-14 from the field (50.0 FG%) and 4-9 from beyond the arc (44.4 3P%).
But this was not enough to secure victory for the Warriors as Los Angeles came away with a five-point win over the Golden State (115-110). Tomorrow night is a repeat of the same matchup. Will we see a similar or a different result? Are the Warriors getting eliminated in the first game itself? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
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