Guarding Stephen Curry is a nightmare for defenders in the NBA. The entire scouting report on players and the defensive strategy could be built on stopping Stephen Curry, yet teams mostly fail to do so. Kyrie Irving, on the other hand, is one of the most skilled point guards in terms of his ball handling and ability to create separation and make a shot for himself.
In a recent episode of the Club 520 podcast, Jeff Teague claimed Stephen Curry is harder to guard than Kyrie Irving, despite the Mavericks guard’s shifty ball-handling skills.
“I mean, they’re both tough covers, but I would rather guard Kyrie… At least you know where Kyrie is going to be. Like you’re going to catch him right on that pass or wherever he’s going to be and iso you.”
“You look one way, Steph is taking off the other. You’ve got to catch up. He just causes too much havoc with how much he moves.”
To be fair, Teague did not take a shot at Irving. He acknowledged that even Irving is tough to guard. But guarding Stephen Curry has, over the past decade, not been a good experience for almost anyone.
In recent memory, only Amen Thompson from the Rockets can truly claim he managed to restrict Curry to three points in an entire regular-season game. Other than that, whoever recalls guarding Stephen Curry usually narrates a story that sounds like they had a nightmare.
Teams like the Rockets resorted to attacking his injured thumb in the first round of the 2025 Playoffs just so they could capitalize on his vulnerability as the only way to stop him. And he still averaged 24.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.7 assists despite playing like a shell of himself in a few games of that series.
From players throwing up in practice just trying to keep up with Stephen Curry, to players ‘almost dying’ in the NBA Finals trying to stop him, Curry has been a menace to defenders throughout his career.
In 2023, former Cavaliers player J.R. Smith famously recalled Matthew Dellevadova guarding Stephen Curry in the 2015 NBA Finals.
“I love Delly to death, but Delly almost died guarding Steph Curry. No, literally almost died,” he said.
Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry have faced each other 36 times in their career, including regular-season games and playoff games as well. In those encounters, Stephen Curry averaged 24.5 points, 6.7 assists, and 5.2 rebounds. Meanwhile, Irving has averaged 25.5 points, 5.0 assists, and 4.4 rebounds in those games.
Curry is leading the head-to-head record between these two players, as Curry came out on top 12-11 against Irving in the regular season and 8-5 in the Playoffs. Therefore, their head-to-head record is 20 wins in Curry’s favor and 16 wins in Irving’s favor.
