Stephen Curry exploded at the end of the gold medal game between Team USA and France at the 2024 Olympics, hitting four three-pointers in the final three minutes. It turns out he even called his own play for one of them, with Team USA head coach Steve Kerr revealing that his star guard requested to run a pick-and-roll with LeBron James.
“USA Basketball’s Steve Kerr said Stephen Curry requested during a timeout to run the pick-and-roll with LeBron James that set up one of his dagger threes to beat France: ‘I said, okay, let’s do that.'”
Curry wanted to run a cleared-side pick-and-roll with James and Kerr was not going to turn down that request even with it being a high-pressure situation. They are two of the greatest and smartest players in NBA history and every coach would have had trust in them to make it work and they did make it work.
Curry’s flurry meant that the French, who had cut Team USA’s lead down to 82-79 with just over three minutes remaining, were finally put away for good. France battled admirably for much of that game but their backs were broken right at the end thanks to some Curry magic.
Steph finished the game with 24 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, and 2 steals while LeBron had 14 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. Thanks to the duo, Team USA ended up winning 98-87 to clinch a fifth-straight gold. It was Curry’s first gold medal in his very first appearance while for LeBron, this was his third gold.
Stephen Curry Spoke On Running The “Too Small” Action With LeBron James
Curry and LeBron teamed up in a competitive setup for the first time in this Olympics and the results were devastating. They proved to be an incredible duo and prior to the quarterfinal clash against Brazil, Curry spoke about how he and James are a nightmare for the opposition.
“I’m a good screener and can cause some confusion for a guy like (LeBron) having the ball. We do it a little bit in Golden State where you have somebody else having the ball and me setting it, and I have a lot of different actions you can run, but if you get (LeBron) going downhill, good luck to anybody trying to stop him and having me come off into space.”
“Just try to make teams make decisions and the more decisions you can make a defense make the better chance you have to create confusion.”
With this play, a defender who is “too small” gets switched on to LeBron and they often have no chance of stopping him. It either leads to James getting an easy basket or forces a double team, which leads to someone else being open for a three.
It is a shame that this final was probably the last time we saw Curry and LeBron team up in an actual competitive game as well. It seems very unlikely to me that they’ll ever be teammates in the NBA, especially after the Golden State Warriors failed in their quest of trading for James this past season. That was probably the last chance and it was LeBron himself who reportedly turned it down. He might have some regrets now after playing with Curry.
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