Steph Curry parades to the rim and the Warriors roll over the Raptors at home

June 27, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry’s first three makes Friday night against the Raptors were all at the rim on backdoor cuts. Toronto, as usual, overplayed Curry, top-locked him out to the perimeter and tried to take away his 3.

“They play a certain style of defense that … I’ve used a couple adjectives back in the day,” Curry said.

Junk. That was one, referring mostly to the box-and-1 Nick Nurse put on Curry in the 2019 NBA Finals.

“Gimmicky,” Curry said, remembering another.

The Warriors planned for Nurse’s tendencies and Curry had the early counters. Those first two backdoor layups came in the first three minutes. Here is the first. The rangy Scottie Barnes is on Curry and is clearly most concerned with Curry darting out to the perimeter, leaving an easy avenue for him to cut into a layup, set up by Draymond Green.

Other teams overplay Curry similarly. The Grizzlies are one of them. But Memphis has Jaren Jackson Jr. and Steven Adams roaming behind in the paint, willing to leave the Warriors’ non-shooters and close off the rim.

The Raptors don’t have that kind of rim protection. Pascal Siakam was their de facto starting center Friday night. So Curry came into it with a purposeful plan of getting to the rim against a switching scheme designed to shut off the perimeter but vulnerable in the middle.

“If we’re steady with the ball, direct drives, getting into the paint, finding open guys or getting to the rim, you have to be able to use that to your advantage,” Curry said. “Especially with a switching type defense. You make them close out, drive the closeouts, get to the rim. I got one shot blocked, but otherwise there were a lot of opportunities. That’s good mindfulness on game plan for a team that plays us a certain way.”

Curry finished with 18 points in the paint. That’s a season high. The Warriors finished with 62 points in the paint. That’s the second-most they’ve had as a team in a game this season. It’s usually a problem area. They’re 29th among the 30 teams in paint points.

But Friday’s matchup with the Raptors provided an opportunity to alter their normal mode of attack, and they executed with purpose. That included a more deliberate fourth-quarter offensive strategy. Donte DiVincenzo mentioned the guard-to-guard screen action that worked well in the second half. They’d also have possessions, like the one below, where they targeted a certain defender, brought them into screen action and created an advantage.

In this sequence, with the Warriors only up four with under six minutes left, Kevon Looney comes up to screen for Curry. Fred VanVleet is on Curry. Gary Trent is on Looney. The screen causes a double-team and an easy pass over the top to a cutting Looney. VanVleet tries to recover, but he’s too small to bother the pass or Looney. Barnes isn’t a true rim protector. Looney glides in for a layup.

There’s another aspect of that clip that’s notable. At the beginning. DiVincenzo is demanding Looney come up to set the screen. Steve Kerr gave DiVincenzo 33 minutes against the Raptors and he produced another all-around steady effort. DiVincenzo had 12 points, a career-high 11 assists and two steals. It earned him closing duties over Jordan Poole. DiVincenzo was a plus-24.

“I had no idea I was plus-24,” DiVincenzo said. “I don’t know. I think sometimes it’s skewed when I’m playing with two of the best shooters of all time and it helps a lot when that situation happens.”

“Donte was fantastic,” Kerr said. “He’s had such a great stretch now over the last six or eight weeks. He just competes. He’s just a guard. He’s not a point guard, not a two-guard, he’s just a basketball player. He had 11 assists. Moved the ball beautifully. Competes defensively. And we put them on VanVleet after VanVleet got off to the hot start and, yeah, Donte’s just been amazing for us.”

Jonathan Kuminga was another trusted hand for Kerr in the second half. He continues to emerge as a steady bench player. Kuminga — in a surprise, considering his downhill skill and the Warriors’ high volume of paint points — actually did his offensive damage behind the arc. Kuminga changed the complexion of the game late in the third quarter when he made four straight 3s over a three-minute stretch, tying his career high for makes from deep.

Klay Thompson mimics Jonathan Kuminga’s shooting form at the podium. Kuminga made four straight third quarter 3s tonight.

“JK really actually has great form. It’s fluid. Got his elbow locked. It looks great.” pic.twitter.com/YD1nf5HtY6

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 28, 2023

But the overall story was those 62 paint points, and the main reason for that was Curry.

“He looked like he had his pop back,” Kerr said. “Getting by people getting into the paint and then moving it on from there.”

His pop back from before his shoulder injury?

“Just from the road trip,” Kerr said. “I didn’t think he was as sharp as he usually is on that trip. I think getting home all week, getting some rest, sleeping in his own bed, I think it was helpful. He looked really fast out there, under control.”

“Yeah,” Curry said. “I mean I felt good, moving well. I’ve been doing that for a couple games now. Just everything being in sync in terms of what I’m trying to get to on the offensive end. Don’t nobody tell (Kerr) but I played a lot of minutes and I felt really good for all 39. So I want to keep that up. I haven’t gotten that question that much this season, which is nice.”

The win moves the Warriors to 25-24, a nudge back above .500 in advance of what should be a revealing trip next week. They face the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Monday and then the Timberwolves and Nuggets in a back-to-back in Minnesota and Denver. Those are two teams near them in the crowded conference standings and the West’s top seed on the rough side of a back-to-back.

(Photo of Stephen Curry going to the basket against Fred VanVleet during the first half Friday: Jed Jacobsohn / Associated Press)

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