Stephen Curry is last in the NBA in field goal percentage among all players to attempt 25+ shots in clutch time during the 2021-22 season.
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The Warriors star has been one of the leading candidates in the MVP race this season. Steph and Kevin Durant won Western Conference and Eastern Conference Player of the Month awards. The duo was ranked #1 and #2 on nba.com’s MVP leaderboard as well.
Golden State’s strong start to the season coincided with a particularly productive 15-game stretch for Steph. The 33-year-old started the season off at a 50/40/90 pace during their first 3 weeks.
Since their 3rd loss of the season to Phoenix, however, the Warriors have gone on to take 2 more Ls. They’re currently still leading the league with an imperious 22-5 record thus far. But Steph is clearly down from his MVP-caliber play from the first 4 weeks.
Shocking stat shows how Stephen Curry hasn’t shot well during clutch periods
An NBA Reddit post pointed out this dip in Curry’s performance of late as he approaches Ray Allen’s all-time mark for 3-pointers made in the regular season.
Surely Steph Curry will become the all-time leader in three-pointers made when the Warriors visit the Knicks!
The stars have aligned for him to break Ray Allen’s record at the Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of Basketball 🙌 pic.twitter.com/LbovZjH0ap
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) December 14, 2021
Curry is dead last in the NBA in field goal percentage in the clutch, making just 25% of his 3 shots and 19% of 3-pointers. By contrast, the much-maligned Anthony Davis actually leads the league, making 18 of his 30 attempts.
Joel Embiid isn’t far behind, making 23 of his 41 shot attempts during clutch periods. Embiid has also astonishingly made 5 of his 9 3-pointers during clutch periods!
It is clear that the MVP race is far from a foregone conclusion. The key thing about the league is that right now, there’s no clear favorite. Golden State and Phoenix lead the standings, Brooklyn have the most talent while the Lakers have LeBron James.
Steph needs to play at a higher level – especially in terms of finishing near the rim. He is missing a ton of those looks of late and hasn’t looked like the player we saw 7 months back.