Stephen Curry parades to rim as Warriors pass Raptors at home

SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry’s first three makes Friday night against the Raptors were all maxed out with backdoor cuts. Toronto overplayed Curry as usual, top-locking him out on the perimeter and trying to rob him of his 3.

“They play a certain style of defense…I used to use some adjectives a long time ago,” Curry said.

junkIt mostly referred to the box-and-one that Nick Nurse put on Curry in the 2019 NBA Finals.

“Gimmick,” Curry said, remembering something else.

The Warriors planned on Nurse’s tendencies and Curry had an early counter. Those first two backdoor layups occurred in the first three minutes. This is the first. An angry Scotty Barnes is on Curry and clearly most interested in Curry popping out onto the perimeter leaving an easy trail to cut to a layup set by Draymond Green .

Other teams similarly overestimate Curry. The Grizzlies are one of them. But Memphis has Jaren Jackson Jr. and Steven Adams roaming behind the paint, willing to leave the Warriors’ non-shooters to close the rim.

The Raptors have no such rim protection. Pascal Siakam was the de facto starting center on Friday night. So Curry enlisted with the deliberate plan to reach the rim against a switching scheme designed to cut off the perimeter but be vulnerable in the middle.

“If you’re stable on the ball, direct drive, going into the paint, finding open guys and getting to the rim, you have to be able to use that to your advantage,” Curry said. “Especially a switching defense. You close them out, drive the closeout, get to the rim. One shot was blocked, but otherwise we had a lot of chances. It’s great mindfulness for a team’s game plan to play in a certain way.”

Curry scored 18 points in the paint. Season high, isn’t it? The Warriors scored 62 points in the paint. This is his second-most in a single game this season as a team. Usually a problem area. Paintpoint is 29th out of 30 teams.

But Friday’s matchup against the Raptors provided an opportunity to change their usual offensive mode, and they performed with purpose. It was Donte DiVincenzo mentioned the guard-to-guard screen action that worked well in the second half. There were also possessions like the one below, where he targeted a specific defender for screen action and created an advantage.

In this sequence, Kevon Looney appears on Curry’s screen with less than six minutes left and the Warriors only up four points. Fred VanVleet is in his Curry. Gary Trent is in Rooney. The screen causes a double team and an easy pass over the top to Cutting Rooney. VanVleet tries to recover, but he is too small to pass or he can interfere with Looney. Barnes is not a true rim his protector. Rooney goes for a layup.

There’s another aspect to that clip that’s worth noting. At first. DiVincenzo demands Rooney come to set up the screen. Steve Kerr gave DiVincenzo his 33rd minute against the Raptors and he produced another all-around steady effort. DiVincenzo had 12 points, a career-high 11 assists and two steals. That made him a closing duty to Jordan Poole. DiVincenzo was plus 24.

“I had no idea I was plus 24,” said DiVincenzo. “I don’t know. I think he’s the greatest shooter of all time and sometimes he’s warped when he’s playing with two guys.

“Donte was fantastic,” said Kerr. “He’s been doing really great stretches the last six or eight weeks. He’s just competing. He’s just a security guard. He’s not a point guard or a two-guard, he’s just a basketball player. had 11 assists moved the ball brilliantly competed defensively and put them in VanVleet after they had a hot start yeah Donte is great for us was.”

Jonathan Kuminga was also a reliable hand for Kerr in the second half. He continues to emerge as a stable bench piece. Kuminga—surprisingly, given his downhill skills and Warriors paint his high points—did some real offensive damage behind the arc. Kuminga changed the face of the game late in the third quarter when he hit his 3rd in a row in his 3rd minute and set a career-high on make from the deep.

Klay Thompson mimics Jonathan Cuminga’s shooting form on the podium. Kuminga scored his 3 in the 3rd quarter for the 4th straight tonight.

“JK has really great form. It’s fluid. Locked elbows. It looks great.” pic.twitter.com/YD1nf5HtY6

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 28, 2023

But the overall story was 62 paint points, and Curry was the main reason for that.

“He seemed to have his pop back,” Carr said. “People go into paint and get over it moving on from there.”

His pop back from before the shoulder injury?

“Just from a road trip,” Kerr said. “I didn’t think he was as smart as he used to be on that trip. I think going home all week and resting and sleeping in his own bed helped. He’s really fast and controlled. It looked like

“Yes,” Curry said. “I mean, I was feeling good and I was moving well. Don’t tell me[Kerr]but I’ve played a lot of minutes, and I haven’t gotten that question a lot this season, but that’s great.”

The win takes the Warriors to 25-24, just above .500 ahead of an obvious trip next week. They face the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Monday, then back-to-back games in Minnesota and Denver against the Timberwolves and Nuggets. These are two teams that are close together in the crowded conference standings, the West’s top seed on the back-to-back rough side.

(Photo of Steph Curry heading to the basket early Friday against Fred VanVleet: Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press)