The Raptors have slowed down since they won 13 out of 14 from Halloween until late November, but they earned a much-needed win over the visiting Warriors last night to get back on track after an ugly loss to the Wizards a few days ago.
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Paced by Scottie Barnes’ 23-point, 25-rebound triple-double, Toronto overcame a 12-point deficit with under eight minutes to play, eventually dominating in overtime to win by 14 and move to 19-14 on the year.
As usual, the Warriors were led by Steph Curry. The two-time MVP poured in 39 points, but the Raptors made him work for them, as he finished 12-30 from the floor and didn’t score a point in overtime. After the game, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic joked about how his team was able to keep Steph from single-handedly beating them.
“I thought that we made it hard on him,” Rajakovic said. “He’s an exceptional player. I saw a video the other day when Coach Pop was saying like what is the game plan for Luka, and he said to keep him under 50. And after the game, Luka had 51, so our goal was tonight to keep [Steph] at 39, so we did our job tonight. That was the goal.”
Rajakovic said that last bit with a sly grin on his face, which suggests that he probably would have changed that number if the Raptors had won, but Steph scored, say, 44. His comments, though tongue-in-cheek, do highlight an issue that the Warriors currently have, and that’s that if you can keep Steph from going nuclear, you have a good chance to walk away with a win.
Steph will be 38 before the season ends, but he’s still playing at an exceptionally high level. He’s currently averaging 28.9 points per game, the third-highest total of his superlative career, and he can rightly lump himself in with fellow golf nut LeBron James, who said after last night’s Lakers win that he’s “kicking [Father Time’s] a** on the back nine.”
While the Lakers have evolved to become a Luka/Austin Reaves-led unit, though, the Warriors are still counting on Steph to be the one to carry them to the promised land. Despite his best efforts, they’re now only 16-16 on the year.
Interestingly, since Steph returned from a quad strain earlier this month, there have been three games in which he’s scored 39 or more, and Golden State is 0-3 in those contests. In the other four, he’s scored 15, 28, 26, and 23, and the Warriors are 3-1.
The moral of the story seems to be that the Warriors are better when other guys are contributing and not just standing around hoping for Steph to bail them out. Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and the rest need to step up their games, and the Warriors may need to bring in some help at the trade deadline to make sure they don’t waste another special Steph season.
