SAN FRANCISCO — By the law of the NBA land, Draymond Green wasn’t able to be at Chase Center on Thursday night for the Warriors’ 114-97 Game 3 win against the Sacramento Kings as he served a one-game suspension handed down from the league.
As soon as the final buzzer rang, Green made his way into the Warriors’ locker room. Draymond sat down next to Steph Curry, shook his head and had one word: Wow.
Speaking the next day on the latest episode of the “Draymond Green Show,” he called Curry a “master at work” for his Game 3 performance. Why? The numbers speak for themself, but it’s about so much more.
In 37 minutes, Curry scored 36 points — 18 in the first half and 18 in the second half. He made 12 of his 25 shot attempts, was 6 of 12 from 3-point range and was a perfect 6 of 6 from the free-throw line. And while the Warriors cut their turnovers nearly in half from 22 in Game 2 to 12 in Game 3, Curry gave it away only once.
“We’ve seen it over the course of the years, right?” Green said Saturday after Warriors practice when asked about Curry being a master at work. “You’ve seen it in spurts.”
Despite Curry already being a two-time NBA MVP and three-time champion at the time, Green believes the 2020-21 season is when he really saw Steph take over the sport during games to a new level. From a strength standpoint, he was different. From a pure athletic genius standpoint, he reached a new height. All while being down some key help.
Klay Thompson was out for the entirety of his second straight season, this time to a torn Achilles. Kevin Durant was playing for the Brooklyn Nets. The final game of the regular season, one in which Curry scored 46 points in a 12-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies, featured 27 minutes of Kent Bazemore in the starting lineup.
Only three Warriors saw time off the bench in that game. Juan Toscano-Anderson played 27 minutes. Jordan Poole in his second season, one that required an extended G League stint, played 25 minutes. Mychal Mulder, who played 17 games in the NBA last season and played the entirety of this season in the G League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, played 15 minutes.
With the odds stacked against him, Curry put together numbers as good or better than both of his previous MVP campaigns. The Warriors superstar led the NBA averaging 32.0 points per game while shooting 48.2 percent from the field, 42.1 percent from 3-point range and 91.6 percent on free throws, along with putting up 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds.
“That’s what we all strive for at the end of the day is to get better, add things to your game,” Green said. “In 2021, he took that next step of just picking and choosing his spots, knowing when to dominate, knowing when I need to dominate off the ball, when I need to dominate on the ball. It’s just figuring out different things.
“And then playing this game together for so long, there’s always constant communication. ‘What do you see here? What do you see there? What are you thinking about this?’ And just the dialogue that he has, it’s totally different than it used to be.”
When the Warriors selected Green in the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft, Curry already had three years of professional experience with Golden State. The season before, though, he was held to only 24 games because of ankle issues that had plagued the start of his career.
Greatness was apparent. Questions still clouded Curry’s future and uncertainty of a ceiling he now keeps extending.
The two now are in their 11th season together. They’ve seen, witnessed and dealt with everything. Literally. There have been highs and there have been lows, but the former has outweighed the latter.
Green can’t pinpoint the moment he first felt Curry being a master at work. All he knows is the performance Curry put on in Game 3 against the Kings, with Green watching from home, brought him back to Boston in Game 4 of the NBA Finals last year. Steph saved the Warriors’ season before winning a title then, and he might have repeated the favor once again.
“I know in those Finals last year, it was that,” Green said. “It was what we saw the other night. It was, I won’t get sped up, this is what I want to get, no matter what’s going on on the floor I want to make sure I get to that.
“It was special to watch, because he dominated the game in every facet, and there was just total control. You can just tell his intent on everything. It was very loud. It was loud and clear that ‘OK, I’m not giving that, this is what I want to get to and there’s really nothing no one can do about that.’
“I thought it was great to watch.”
Steve Kerr and Green alike have seen Curry score 36 points time and time again. They’ve seen him drain more than six 3-pointers. They’ve seen him take over to the extent of toying with the opposition.
To Kerr, for how important Curry’s scoring was to the Warriors winning their first game in this seven-game series, some of the shots he passed up were just as important. Nothing was forced. The flow was his and he wasn’t going to allow anybody else to take it from him.
Curry countless times has given a look of being locked in. A scowl, a nodding head and his famed Night Night celebration. But in Game 3, he found a zen mode like a monk entering meditation.
“I see him really breathing during timeouts, closing his eyes,” Kerr said about Curry digging deep for the right state of focus. “Focusing, just being mindful of what has to happen and getting his rest and relaxing his mind and his body during those three-minute timeouts. You can see it’s really been helpful for him in terms of his focus.”
Whether it was the emotion of the moment or the Kings’ crowd clattering cowbells, Curry opened the series quite the opposite of a master. His first play, in fact, was a disaster of a cross-court turnover right into the hands of Harrison Barnes.
He had five turnovers in Game 1 and another five in Game 2, both Warriors losses.
“That’s his focus,” Kerr said. “He understands the same thing that makes Steph so brilliant can sometimes cost him a possession or two. The other night he realized he had to think. The fact that he could do that and still do what he does, the shot-making was pretty impressive.”
What about someone who hasn’t been around Curry for as long as Green and Kerr?
Donte DiVincenzo has watched Curry from afar and played against him as well. To say he was a fan before becoming a teammate would be putting his admiration lightly. Once they began wearing the same colors, it didn’t take long for DiVincenzo to grasp how Curry masters his craft.
Think first day. That’s how long, or short, it took DiVincenzo to fully understand what so many others have seen before.
“Training camp,” DiVincenzo said Saturday behind a laugh and a smile. “Just the way he dissects the defense. Honestly, from Day 1 you could see it. It’s super fun to play with him and I can’t even say it enough how unselfish he is.
“Game 3, Draymond’s right on point. He knew when to attack, when to make plays, and he also knew when to trust his guys around him and give the ball up and let everybody else make a play.”
Golden State has to hope a masterful showing isn’t required from Curry on Sunday to go back to Sacramento with the series even at two wins apiece.
If that’s the case, Steph can close his eyes and tap into a place only a handful ever have: A master at work, who at 35 years old isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
