SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Stephen Curry has been around long enough that he can be playful when it comes to his rare, recent shooting funk.
Are his hands healthy after a couple of recent minor injuries?
“They’re still attached to my body and I’m still getting up plenty of attempts,” the two-time MVP said following another off-night, one where his Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz 94-92 yesterday.
“I’m trying to have fun with this. It’s a big-picture perspective on how you approach the game, the work that you put in. It’s obviously frustrating. I want to shoot the ball, it’s frustrating. I kicked the chair the other day for that reason,” he said. “It’s not like I don’t care and not trying to figure it out but I don’t get preoccupied with it.” While Curry’s shot is a little off – for now – coach Steve Kerr praises his star point guard’s ballhandling, how he’s dishing off and defending and all the other intangibles, like those 34 assists to six turnovers the past four games.
Curry scored 13 points, struggling again with his three-point stroke a month after becoming the all-time NBA 3s leader. He went one for 13 from deep and five of 20 overall.
“Steph looks great physically. The last few games he’s playing some of his basketball in terms of handling the point guard duties,” Kerr said.
“He’s taking care of the basketball, he’s playing great defence, shots just aren’t going. He’s seemed inhuman for so long. I think everybody just expects him to be in a groove all season long and it’s just not the way it works.”
Jordan Poole scored 20 points to lead a balanced Golden State scoring attack as the Warriors held off a late rally by the Jazz. And Curry’s brother-in-law Damion Lee did his part, coming off the bench to hit four clutch three-pointers and score 12 points.
The Warriors were looking to build some momentum off Curry’s buzzer-beater in a 105-103 win over Houston on Friday night. But this was another frenzied finish. Joe Ingles tied the game at 89 with 4:09 to play.
The Warriors held on despite an 11-point fourth quarter by holding the Jazz to 17 in the period and 38.3 per cent shooting. Royce O’Neale rebounded Bojan Bogdanovic’s missed three-pointer with a hand in his face and O’Neale couldn’t convert a tip-in as the final buzzer sounded.
