Steph Curry, in addition to being able to consult a father who played in the NBA and a brother still in the league, revealed he draws on the wisdom of another family member.
“My aunt, she says to me some amazing stuff from game to game,” Curry, the Golden State Warriors star, said Thursday night after the Warriors beat the Los Angeles Lakers 127-100 in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals. “And she talks about just, you’re always trying to solve the Rubik’s Cube every game. And it starts in a different place every time, so you’re just trying to figure it out, and that’s the beauty of basketball.”
The beauty began Thursday night when the Lakers attacked Curry with double teams. He quickly solved the mythical Rubik’s Cube by playing more like a traditional point guard than the prolific shooter he usually is.
The result: He finished 20 points, about 11 points below this year’s playoff average, but also had 12 assists. With Curry facilitating, the Warriors made 21 3-pointers in a rout of the Lakers and Klay Thompson had 30 points.
NBA PLAYOFFS Lakers can’t beat Warriors if Anthony Davis keeps disappearing
“I thought Steph was brilliant,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “In the first half, he wasn’t really going like offensively, but he was just running our team, and Klay got it going.’’
Only four days earlier, Curry scored 50 points and led the Warriors to victory over the Sacramento Kings in Game 7 of the first-round playoff series.
Said Curry, “I’m capable of playing a lot of different ways.”
What went wrong for Lakers
Rui Hachimura provided the Lakers with 21 points off the bench and gave the media a straightforward analysis of what went wrong for his team.
Hachimura’s take: In Game 2, the Warriors kept four shooters on the floor at all times, up from two or three shooters on the floor during the Lakers’ 117-112 victory in Game 1.
“It was hard for us to guard four shooters,” he said. “We just got to figure out the way to guard them. They open up the floor now.”
Then there was the Warriors’ defense.
“Defensively, they were more aggressive, I feel like,” Hachimura said, also noting that the Warriors slowed Anthony Davis by crowding the paint. “They had all the loose balls and the rebounds and everything.
“Yeah, that was the game.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham was asked about his team’s energy Thursday night.
“I mean, the biggest thing I told them before was not to fight that sensation of contentment, complacency,” he said. “I don’t know if it was that. … I thought our guys were ready to compete.”
Lakers star LeBron James kept his answers simple. In short, to fend off the Warriors’ runs, he said, the Lakers need to keep scoring. And to shine defensively against high-octane Golden State, they must continue to “hang our hat” on having one of the best defenses in the league.
The X-factor
Warriors forward JaMychal Green scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting in 13 highly efficient minutes, and to call the performance surprising would be an understatement.
Green had appeared in only four of the team’s eight playoff games and was averaging 1.5 points. But he joined the starting lineup Thursday after forward Kevon Looney became ill two hours before game time, according to Kerr.
“I’m just proud of JaMych,” Kerr said. “It’s been a tough year for him, for a lot of reasons.’’
At one point in the season, Green was inactive for 14 consecutive games ‒ five after entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols and the next nine because of a lower right leg infection, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report. He also has complained of a lingering wrist injury while playing limited minutes.
But Green, 32, was in top form against the Lakers, playing tough defense, shooting 3-of-6 from 3-point range and scoring 10 points in the third quarter as the Warriors turned the game into a rout.
“It feels good to be able to do this after the year I had,” he said. “It’s been a rough one. You know, haven’t been through nothing like this before.”
Looney came off the bench and had six points and eight rebounds in 12 minutes.
Believing in the ocean’s powers
Klay Thompson, who had the hot hand with 30 points and 8-of-11 shooting from 3-point range, was talking about cooling off when he arrives in Los Angeles for Game 3 on Saturday.
He said he’d consider a dip in the ocean if the weather’s not gloomy.
“I’d love to go jump in,” said Thompson, who grew up in Los Angeles and whose father played for the Lakers. “Hopefully go down to hand Manhattan Beach or something and jump in by the pier.
“There’s just something about getting in the Pacific Ocean and body surfing that just resets your whole mental and your spiritual being, and I’m a true believer in the powers of the ocean and all her healing properties.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephen Curry solves ‘Rubik’s Cube’ in Warriors’ NBA playoffs win
