While seeing Steph Curry play basketball, the word that instantly comes to mind is gravity.
With his playmaking, his shooting carries an exceptional kind of gravity, as does his skill to put the ball on the deck. There is one player in league history talented to carry all of these things together in the way that Curry does. Unfortunately, we scarcely got a chance to watch him do this.
This is because of the Golden State Warriors being wholly uninspiring when he was able to take the floor and then having a broken hand.
Curry at his most magnificent for the first time in a long time was seen Tuesday night. Even if Golden State fell in its second preseason tilt on a 114-113 loss to the Sacramento Kings, Curry reminded us of his ability to throttle opposing teams from the opening tip.
Curry scored the first eight points of the game for the Warriors, and by the time he went to the bench towards the end of the first frame, he put forth a hilariously Curry stretch: 11 points, three assists, two steals, and a rebound in 10 minutes of work with 4-for-8 shooting from the field and 3-for-6 shooting from deep.
Curry still managed to look like he’s mostly rust-free after months and months of no basketball. The highlights, as they always are when he’s deep in his bag, were delightful en route to his final stat line of 29 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals, and a block on 11-for-21 shooting from the field and 5-for-13 shooting from deep.
Curry is more important to the Warriors than ever this season. With no Klay Thompson and a roster that is banking a ton on getting talented dudes who are either young or never played winning basketball into their system, Curry (and Draymond Green) needs to play like an MVP. Should that not happen, there is a very real chance that Golden State can’t make the play-in tournament due to how stacked the Western Conference is.
The good news for the Warriors, though, is that Curry is capable of doing some pretty incredible things. The grind of this season will be a lot, and there will be a ton of weight on his shoulders to perform at the highest of levels, but as we were reminded on Tuesday, Curry’s best is really, really good. After not having the gravity that comes from that in its lineup for essentially all of last year, Golden State as an organization is assuredly overjoyed that Steph’s back.
