It’s not everyday that a two-time NBA MVP gets overshadowed, let alone one who’s opened as many as to what can happen on a basketball court as Stephen Curry has. That’s not such a surprise, though, when Russell Westbrook and James Harden are stuffing stat sheets across the Association, LeBron James is helping the Cleveland Cavaliers defend their crown and Kevin Durant, not Curry, is leading the Golden State Warriors in scoring.
Even George “The Iceman” Gervin, a Hall of Famer and scoring legend, had trouble finding room on his own Western Conference All-Star squad for Steph.
“I’m not taking anything from him, man,” Gervin told Bleacher Report in discussing NBA All-Star voting (presented by Verizon). “I think the sacrifice that he’s making for Golden State, man, is what’s going to help them get an opportunity to maybe get to the Finals again.
“So I think he recognizes how important how important that is. He’s already shown everybody who he is and what he could be. Now I think he’s showing them that he understand the game and understand what he has on his team.”
But even a team-first guy like Curry has to wonder about the squad around him after the Warriors’ stunning 128-119 overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.
His 40-point night wasn’t enough to preserve a 24-point second-half lead, let alone allow Golden State to exact revenge for a 21-point loss in Memphis to the Mike Conley-less Grizzlies on Dec. 10.
The defeat was just the sixth of 2016-17 for the Warriors, but all but one of those has come against a club that could give them trouble come playoff time. They’ve been blown out on opening night by the San Antonio Spurs, triple-doubled to death by Harden’s Houston Rockets, nipped by the Cavaliers on Christmas Day and now grit-n-ground by the Grizzlies twice.
The Dubs’ last two losses look eerily similar and speak to the same concerns that could dog them down the line.
In Cleveland, their defense relaxed and the team looked shook against a bigger, more physical opponent as a 14-point lead vanished into thin air. Against the Grizzlies, their offense went cold and their passes turned careless (seven turnovers in the fourth quarter and overtime) as Memphis began to impose its will. Curry hit Golden State’s only two field goals of the fourth while Durant (27 points, 13 rebounds, four assists) missed three straight free throws and Klay Thompson (17 points) bricked a pair at the stripe.
All told, the Grizzlies got up 20 more field-goal attempts, thanks in part to a 14-7 edge on the offensive glass and just 12 turnovers to the Warriors’ 16.
“Tough loss. Bad loss. Hiccup,” head coach Steve Kerr said afterward, per ESPN’s Marc J. Spears. “We have to do better. But we’re doing fine.”
Kerr may be right. At 31-6, Golden State has a game-and-a-half cushion on the West’s No. 1 spot. They’ve been a top-three team on both ends of the floor, per NBA.com, and have enough firepower to engulf just about anyone on any given night.
Still, there’s clearly work to be done in the Bay Area. The Warriors, for all their success in recent seasons, are reshaping their identity if not around Durant then certainly with him always close to mind. That can be a blessing when the former MVP finds his groove and a curse when he tries to do it on his own, as he did to Draymond Green’s dismay with Golden State up two late.
In truth, nobody’s forgotten about Curry; He led all Western Conference guards in fan voting when the first tallies came out on Thursday. But with Curry taking even a slight step back to invite a new world order at Oracle Arena, the Warriors may have forgotten, if only temporarily, what made them great against the NBA’s best.
Melo Upstages Euro Showdown In Milwaukee
For the first 45 minutes of Friday's rematch between the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porzingis shone as expected.
The Greek Freak racked up his nightly supply of spectacular slams and stunning swats as the Bucks built up an 18-point lead.
The Knicks' Unicorn did his part to bring New York back. With New York down seven in the middle of the fourth quarter, Porzingis drained a three, blocked Antetokounmpo at the hoop and hit another triple from 28 feet out to pull his team within a point.
But Porzingis' early foul trouble cost him shortly thereafter, when he picked up his sixth battling for a loose ball with Antetokounmpo. He finished with 24 points, six rebounds and three blocks to his Hellenic counterpart's 25, six and five.
New York, though, didn't need Porzingis to pull out a 116-111 win down the stretch. The Knicks closed out the game on an 8-0 run, bolstered by a Carmelo Anthony three and a steal by Porzingis' replacement (Lance Thomas) that turned into a Courtney Lee slam. Anthony finished with 26 points (12 in the fourth quarter) and 10 assists—both team highs—to help the Knicks snap a six-game skid and climb back within a game of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Gordon Sets Career Mark In A Flash
Eric Gordon had far from his finest night of what's been a brilliant season during the Houston Rockets' 100-93 win over the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center. Gordon gave the Rockets 17 points and four assists off the bench, but he shot 7-of-20 overall and just 3-of-16 from three-point range.
He only needed to hit one bomb to hit a new personal milestone. A 25-foot make off a James Harden pass in the first quarter gave Gordon 142 threes on the season, setting a new career high in just 38 games.
Gordon's 144 triples overall are the most in the Association to date. If Houston's injury-prone sharpshooter can stay healthy enough to keep firing away, he could join Dee Brown as one of two players in NBA history to lead the league in three-pointers off the pine.
Brown, who hit 135 triples for the Toronto Raptors during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, finished tied for fifth in Sixth Man of the Year voting. Gordon's importance to the 29-9 Rockets' stunning success could be enough to earn him the award, regardless of whether he winds up as the NBA's most prolific three-point shooter in 2016-17.
C's Seize Opportunities from Three
The Boston Celtics took the old phrase "take what the defense gives you" to its modern logical extreme Friday night.
The Philadelphia 76ers used their size and their length to lock down the interior at TD Garden. They blocked 11 Boston shots—including two from Joel Embiid (23 points, eight rebounds, three assists) and three off the bench by Nerlens Noel (13 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals)—and dominated the home team in the paint, 46-18.
But rather than fight a losing battle inside, Boston took its business outside, where it found ample room to shoot. Avery Bradley (26 points, six threes) led eight C's with made threes en route to a franchise-record 19 triples. None was bigger, though, than the four Al Horford drained in the fourth quarter, including a corner three off a picture-perfect pass from Kelly Olynyk to put Boston ahead for good with 17 seconds left.
"That's exactly how we drew it up," Horford said, per MassLive.com's Jay King. "Like, exactly."
Boston's love of the long ball has been a feature, not a bug, of this season's squad. According to NBA.com, the C's have scored 32.7 percent of their points from beyond the arc—the fourth-highest mark in the league.
Wizards Keep Winning In D.C.
The Washington Wizards had to work hard against the Minnesota Timberwolves to extend their home winning streak to nine games in a 112-105 victory.
Andrew Wiggins bounced back from a poor showing in Philadelphia with a game-high 41 points, including 16 in the third quarter to help Minnesota erase a 14-point deficit. Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng both dropped in double-doubles up front, and Brandon Rush contributed 10 points off the bench.
But no star shone as brightly at the Verizon Center as John Wall, who finished one assist shy of his career high with 18 helpers to accompany his 18 points.
Bradley Beal backed up his backcourt mate with 22 points, including a clutch triple from about six feet beyond the arc to put Washington ahead by five with just over a minute to go.
The Wizards will head to Milwaukee for a Sunday dance with the Bucks, but they will be back in D.C. on Tuesday in search of their 10th straight win at the Phone Booth against the Chicago Bulls.
LeBron Does It All In Brooklyn
LeBron James knows better than anyone what the Cleveland Cavaliers need, be it a backup point guard or a big scoring night.
With his team short-handed while awaiting Kyle Korver's arrival from Atlanta, James came through for the Cavs on every front in a 116-108 win over the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center.
Rebounds? James had nine of them. Assists? He had six of those. Points? How about 36 on 14-of-20 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the free-throw line?
That scoring output, combined with the 31 he tallied during Cleveland's loss to Chicago on Wednesday, gave James his first set of consecutive 30-point games this season.
Had the Cavs played even a modicum of defense in the fourth quarter, James and his fellow superstars might've gotten some rest against the worst team in the East. Instead, they'll all be a bit more bleary-eyed as they head almost clear across the country to face one of the West's weakest links (the Phoenix Suns) at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Sunday.
CP3 Makes History In Return
After sitting out four games with a gimpy hamstring, Chris Paul made up for lost time by climbing up several historic ladders during the Los Angeles Clippers’ 106-98 win over the Sacramento Kings.
His 14 points put him past Danny Manning into sixth place on the Clippers’ franchise scoring list. With three steals, he jumped over Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas into 15th place among the NBA’s all-time ball thieves. A dish to Luc Mbah a Moute for a thunderous dunk over DeMarcus Cousins—one of 12 Paul assists on the night—pushed him ahead of Rod Strickland and into the NBA’s top 10 in career assists.
The Clippers would be happy to see CP3 stay healthy enough to rewrite as many history books as possible, the NBA’s and their own alike. L.A. has now won three straight following a six-game skid, with two home games against the Florida teams coming up to strengthen its spot in the standings—and let Paul pad his stats.
Lakers Brawl Out To Beat Heat
The Los Angeles Lakers know what it’s like to play without a complete deck. They came into Friday’s game against the Miami Heat without dunking favorite Larry Nance Jr. and saw their promising 10-10 start buried beneath injuries to D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Nick Young, Tarik Black and Jose Calderon.
Still, you won’t see Lakers fans—least of all Laker Film Room’s Pete Zayas—crying for the shorthanded Miami Heat after L.A.’s 127-100 win.
Miami began that shellacking with Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow both sidelined by injuries. In the third quarter, they lost another key player, Goran Dragic, during a third-quarter tussle with Lakers reserve Jordan Clarkson that got both players ejected.
From that point on, L.A. crushed Miami, 51-32, to cruise to just its fourth victory since November.
Friday's Final Scores
Washington Wizards 112, Minnesota Timberwolves 105
Houston Rockets 100, Orlando Magic 93
Boston Celtics 110, Philadelphia 76ers 106
Cleveland Cavaliers 116, Brooklyn Nets 108
New York Knicks 116, Milwaukee Bucks 112
Memphis Grizzlies 128, Golden State Warriors 119
Los Angeles Clippers 106, Sacramento Kings 98
Los Angeles Lakers 127, Miami Heat 100
All stats via NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his Hollywood Hoops podcast with B/R Lakers lead writer Eric Pincus.