Stephen Curry is having one of the best NBA Finals series of his career against the Boston Celtics. Up until Game 4 of the series, Steph was without a doubt the best player on the floor for the Dubs in each and every game, which included a fabulous 43-point performance in Game 4.
But in Game 5 of the series, Steph had a nightmarish performance. He managed to score just 16 points and failed to drain even a single three-pointer in the entire game. He went 0-9 from the 3-point and ended up breaking his streak of 233 games of scoring a 3-pointer.
Thankfully, Andrew Wiggins stepped up to help the Dubs steer to victory with his 26-point performance. The aftermath of that game is that many are pointing out that Wiggs might have strengthened his case for winning the 2022 NBA Finals MVP award over Steph.
Is it really true though? Well, renowned NBA analyst Shannon Sharpe certainly doesn’t think so. If anything, he has claimed that even if Curry has another bad game, he should still be named the 2022 NBA Finals MVP.
https://twitter.com/undisputed/status/1536721229025103879
“Steph can go have another like he had last night. You heard the reporters say, ‘I regret Steph Curry not getting the Finals MVP’. They’re not messing this one up, Skip. He’s gonna win this award and I get it…. He’s averaging 31 points per game in the series, shooting 47% from the floor, 42% from three. I think both of those stats are better than what he shot this year from that distance from the floor and from the 3-pointer line.
Klay and Wiggins are both averaging about 18, so he’s 13 points clear of those and he’s averaging more assists. He’s averaging more rebounds than Klay. Andrew Wiggins is having a great series rebounding the basketball, Skip.”
He continued, “This notion that a Finals MVP has to play great every game, that’s not true. Skip, in Game 3 the Lakers won in which Michael Jordan shot 11-28. Game 2 against the Sonics in ’96, he shot 9-22, they won. In Game 6, the close out game, he was 5-19, they won. In Game 7, you remember Celtics against the Lakers, Kobe was 6-24 in Game 7. So Finals MVP has had bad shooting games and still been able to overcome that and win Finals MVP.
…We know how great he is, he just proved last night, he is human shooting the basketball. Considering what he did in the other night when you thought he was a machine, he’s human. But there is no question in my mind, if they win the series, Steph Curry is gonna be the Finals MVP.”
As Shannon explained, in the past, there have been instances when players have had bad games during the NBA Finals and have still ended up winning the NBA Finals MVP.
Moreover, Curry has had just one bad game in this series so far. If he scores more than 20-25 points in Game 6 of the series and the Warriors win it all, there is no way he isn’t winning that honor.
