Stephen Curry Is Having One Of The Best NBA Finals Performances Of All Time

Stephen Curry is not new to this. Friday wasn’t the first time he’s stepped onto the biggest stage in basketball and silenced a raucous crowd.

Contrary to what some may believe, he’s also not a stranger to these historical, show-everyone-who’s-boss type of playoff performances.

Walking into Boston during the 2022 NBA Finals and proving that he’s never rattled, despite being a 6’3” guard that endures more defensive attention than anyone in NBA history, Curry wasn’t letting his Golden State Warriors fall into a 3-1 deficit.

Curry’s 43 points and 10 rebounds – on 14-of-26 shooting – put a stranglehold on any conversation surrounding his lack of individual dominance in the Finals. He became just the 12th player in Finals history to match the 43-point and 10-rebound mark – the oldest player on the list.

In reality, there never should have been any question about his reputation or track record in these moments.

Almost seven years ago to the day, in Game 5 of the 2015 Finals, Curry was being hounded by pesky Cleveland defenders that were being labeled “Curry-stoppers.” He proceeded to roast the Cavaliers for 37 points on 23 shot attempts, including seven three-pointers to inch Golden State closer to its first championship with this core.

A year later, with a chance to go up 3-1 in the 2016 Finals, Curry single-handedly left the Cleveland crowd in panic for a few days. His 38 points in just 40 minutes, while also nailing seven threes, left fans wondering if there was any possible way to slow him down.

It’s also important to remember his herculean effort from the 2019 Finals, particularly in Game 3. Curry entered that night, against Toronto’s swarming and switchable defense, knowing he wouldn’t have much offensive help due to Klay Thompson being sidelined with a hamstring injury. Yet, often playing in lineups with awful spacing and no shot creation, he was still a handful for Nick Nurse’s aggressive schemes. He poured in 47 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists while spending a large chunk of his minutes next to Alfonzo McKinnie and Quinn Cook – neither of whom are in the league now. It may have come in a loss, but nobody was leaving Oracle Arena that evening wondering when Curry would ever ‘show up’ when it mattered.

When every bit of the media attention is focused on him, or when the Warriors’ backs are against the wall, rising to the occasion isn’t just a goal for Curry.

It’s the only expectation. And it’s the only thing we’ve seen from him, time and time again.

With how physical and unremitting Boston’s defensive pressure has been all series, it’s a miracle Curry has the energy to sustain this. Combine the fatigue with a mild foot sprain that he suffered in the second half of Game 3, and it was fair to wonder if Golden State was bound to run out of gas.

The question, however, should have been whether or not Boston was prepared for the mental grind that comes with guarding Curry, particularly after a loss. After Game 3, the Celtics believed they had all bases covered. If only one guy was a major threat to their defense, it was logical to think the Celtics could withstand any dynamic Curry performance and still win the war of attrition. That mindset dissipated once the basketball version of Babe Ruth stepped to the plate, calm and even-keeled, and left an entire venue in awe.

Draymond Green, who has played over 500 career games next to Curry and seen every meaningful playoff game of his career, simply shook his head postgame. The significance of a Game 4 win, having a chance to regain homecourt advantage, was not lost on him. He also knew the Warriors’ supporting cast, himself included, didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

“He put us on his back,” Green said. “Willed us to win. A much-needed win and game we had to have. Came out and showed why he’s one of the best players to ever play this game, and why this organization has been able to ride him to so much success. It’s absolutely incredible.”

After four games, Curry isn’t just having the best Finals of his career. You can extend it to any playoff series. He’s never been in this much control. Never looked so comfortable attacking any form of defense. And he’s certainly never been asked to carry this much weight on his shoulders in a playoff series. Looking around the floor, Green is now an offensive liability, Klay Thompson is saving all of his superpowers for a Game 6, and Jordan Poole often gets them into trouble with his defensive concerns.

Andrew Wiggins has been the second-best Warrior during their 2022 playoff run … and somehow Curry still has to prove he’s capable of leading a team to success?

Through four games of this series, Curry is averaging 34.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. In scoring output, he’s up to 137 points in 138 minutes and 1.46 points per shot (career-high for a Finals series). Curry is shooting 51.2% from two, 49.0% from three, and 85.7% at the foul line.

For perspective, Thompson, currently the Warriors’ second-highest scorer, would have to double his total points scored (69) just to catch Curry.

Boston’s defense is suffocating Golden State’s superstar, utterly ignoring their non-shooting role players, and making life difficult for Thompson and Poole. The Warriors’ only path to victory in this series is to sustain the inhuman performances from their franchise cornerstone and use Wiggins to match Boston’s speed, youth, and athleticism on both ends of the floor.

If there’s one person who knows a thing or two about a physical defense stalling any great team’s offensive flow, it’s Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. Having been around in the 1990s, on another dynastic team, he witnessed first-hand how tough and gritty defenses often made Chicago look like a one-man machine. When things got ugly, Michael Jordan lifted them over the edge.

Now, almost three decades later, he’s watching Curry put unbelievable fear in the eyes of defenders. He has another front-row seat to the most electrifying show in sports, and relishing every moment Curry turns a rowdy road environment into a hushed library.

“Just stunning,” Kerr said after Curry’s 43-point night. “The physicality out there is pretty dramatic. I mean, Boston’s got, obviously, the best defense in the league. Huge and powerful at every position, and for Steph to take that kind of pressure all game long and still be able to defend at the other end shows you … I think this is the strongest physically he’s ever been in his career, and it’s allowing him to do what he’s doing.”

This isn’t a matter of Curry walking into wide-open threes, like he did in Game 1 when the Celtics were experimenting with different coverages against him. Nope. No easy ones for him this late in any series.

Most of his 14 attempts in Game 4 were heavily contested. The shot difficulty looked eerily similar to his Game 7 performance in the 2016 West Finals, facing an Oklahoma City defense that caused the same type of issues for the (younger) Warriors – intense ball pressure, fighting over screens, playing mobile bigs, and switching with lengthy wing defenders.

As I touched on after Game 2, Kerr has simplified the approach. He’s running more screen-and-roll action for his main threat, and Curry is just going nuclear from long-distance. Like, four feet behind the line:

Notice how far up Horford is on the perimeter. This isn’t traditional drop coverage that you can easily criticize. He’s up further than he’s ever played defensively. But when Curry calls up Horford’s man for the ball-screen, Jaylen Brown knows he has to fight through the screen. When he spins under it, that leaves a few inches of daylight between his release and Brown’s contest on the recovery.

That’s when having the quickest release of any historically great shooter will come in handy. I mean, even when Boston hides Horford on Payton, the Warriors will still call him up. Horford has both feet above the perimeter, and Tatum makes his way over the screen. Not even some body contact on a deep three-pointer is preventing Curry from being a flamethrower:

“All you can do is watch,” Wiggins said when asked about Curry’s shotmaking. “When Steph has the ball sometimes, you just watch and see what he does. He’s the type of player that can go into a zone and still get everyone involved.”

After another strong third quarter, which has become par for the course throughout Curry’s career, Boston was sending multiple bodies his way in the fourth. Sometimes, it was by accident, as they were so concerned with Curry creating any separation.

Steph with a live dribble is the most dangerous player of this generation, and his scoring is only a fraction of it. Defenses will show him a crowd, not realizing another all-time shooter is breaking free:

Late in the fourth, with Derrick White chasing him around and trying to crowd his airspace, Curry gave us the perfect example of how demoralizing it must be to face him. All it takes is one subtle misstep, or the inability to slam on the brakes and change direction.

Curry doesn’t even need to give the best shot-fakes. His movement and deceleration alone are serving as pump-fakes to get him quality shots. In this series, he is now 11-of-18 from beyond the arc when there’s only 2-4 feet of space between him and the defender:

After four games, Curry’s usage rate in the Finals is up to 34.6% – for context, that’s right around the same mark as Giannis Antetokounmpo during the regular season (34.9%). With thousands of fans heckling every Warriors player on the court and chanting obscenities, he has given them something to marvel.

“The heart on that man is incredible,” Thompson said. “You know, the things he does we kind of take for granted from time to time, but to go out there and put us on his back, I mean, we got to help him out on Monday.”

Curry is also doing significant damage in the mid-range area when Boston decides to run him off the arc. If it’s Rob Williams stepping up high on the drop coverage, especially with Marcus Smart as the chaser, the same window isn’t always there.

That’s when he’s able to pull back, reset the possession, and showcase his shot creation skills. Again, a Steph Curry live dribble has to be a nightmare for anyone:

The patience to not force anything in such a tight game is one of Curry’s best traits. He knows he can still dust any big man off the dribble with his deceptive ball-handling. We’ve seen him get to this type of floater many times throughout the playoffs. Just in the Finals, he’s shooting 64.7% in the mid-range.

Friday was Curry’s seventh career playoff game with at least 40 points, but you could feel how the magnitude of this one was far greater. He saved his team from an unescapable hole, lifting them back into the driver’s seat of this series – and a fourth championship.

He’s just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 32 points per game on 50% shooting in the first four games of any Finals. The only other players to do it are LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kevin Durant.

In classic Steph fashion, he deflected all of the praise after the best game of his playoff career. Instead, he mentioned how the team got enough offensive juice from the supporting cast and had more composure in the fourth quarter.

To that end, Curry’s leadership still doesn’t get the appropriate credit. From the minute he stepped in the door in the summer of 2009, he’s always put the team before himself. For someone endlessly in the spotlight and a player who represents the league’s peak popularity, it’s never about him. He won’t seek the credit and attention, even if he’s never been more deserving.

There isn’t a better leader in sports, from the start of a season to the finish line. From the example he sets for the entire organization from a conditioning and practice standpoint, to holding everyone accountable in his own way, he’s the most malleable superstar the league has seen. Anyone can fit around him. Any player, big or small, can learn something new from him. Every coach admires his approach on and off the court.

It’s his leadership, both vocally and by example, that has Golden State tied 2-2 in this physical series. Boston will have their defensive counters, to be sure. But there is only so much you can do with a player that’s comfortable rising up from that distance, and someone extremely willing to get rid of the ball quickly when you send help.

Make no mistake – Curry never needed the Finals MVP on his résumé to be considered among the NBA’s pantheon of playoff greats.

Seven years later, with his veteran teammates looking shaky, Curry knows he has to take it up a notch. Through four games, he’s shown why there’s still a lot left in the tank – and why the league should be fearful.