The Blazers blew the Warriors out 123-98 last night by making 20 3-pointers out of their 43 attempts. Steph Curry talks about how demoralizing it was.
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Damian Lillard made 6 3-pointers out of his 10 attempts. Carmelo Anthony and CJ McCollum combined for 7 more makes on 18 attempts. CJ, who has been hot in games of late, took a back seat to Lillard in general. But the whole Blazers offense was humming smoothly all along.
Whereas Dame got admirable support from his teammates on both ends, Steph got none. Curry added 26 points for the Warriors on 9-of-20 shooting, but the rest of his team shot just 22-of-58 from the field. They finished a woeful 39.2% from the field, while Oubre laid yet another duck from 3-point range.
Draymond Green had a terrible comeback game, taking only 3 shots for 0 points on board. Fellow big man James Wiseman was no better, shooting 2-of-8 from the field and lagging behind the game on several occasions. It is clear that the Warriors offense doesn’t suit its personnel.
Steph Curry speaks about the demoralizing effect of watching opponents rain 3-pointers
In the post-game interview, Curry said that watching the Blazers make so many 3s was not great for morale. The sputtering Warriors offense was put under more and more pressure with each make. They simply gave up early in the 4th. Steph made 4 of his 12 3-pointers, and the rest of his teammates had a pathetic 2-of-23 night from downtown.
Obviously, he was under some pressure from the Blazers offense, which he acknowledged by saying: “It’s deflating when you see 3’s going in left and right. … It puts too much pressure on your offense.”
Stephen Curry: “It’s deflating when you see 3’s going in left and right. … It puts too much pressure on your offense.”
— Connor Letourneau (@Con_Chron) January 2, 2021
Overall, the team could do a whole lot better on offense once their wings start heating up from range. Oubre Jr is not a good 3-point shooter, but he’s also not a 4% shooter from downtown – nobody in the NBA is. But at the same time, it may be time for Steve Kerr to tactically switch things up.