Why no one guards Steph Curry this way - NBA Finals Game 4 analysis

After four scintillating games of the 2022 finals, Steph Curry is averaging 34 points a night on smoking hot 66% true shooting, by far his highest scoring volume in any of the 26 playoff series he's played in his career. And while he's added strength and tightened his handle to deal with all kinds of ball pressure, there's a major tactical reason why Curry's scoring in his series has blown away any of his previous finals performances. Before we get to that, this game looked like it was swinging toward the Celtics in the middle of the fourth quarter after Jalen Brown scampered down the lane for a layup to put Boston up by two. On the other end, Curry is looking to hit Draymond on the roll, but Green pulls up so Brown nabs it and breaks out in transition, finishing with a fantastic scoop layup to put Boston up by five. That was the second consecutive turnover from the Warriors. And a few minutes earlier, Rob Williams had roamed off Draymond to alter this shot. Green passed on a layup to kick it out for a three. And despite more aggression from him on the offensive end in this game, the limitations we discussed in game were still an issue for the Golden State offense, with the Celtics able to roam off him and ignore him out on the perimeter. So, Steve Kerr, in an incredibly bold move, sent Draymond to the bench, and he immediately reaped the benefits of having all those shooters out there as Klay drives into a ton of space and turns for a great look to cut it to three. The Celtics try to put Curry in screening action, and Wiggins wants to fight over this screen so Steph can avoid the switch, but Tatum brilliantly cuts backdoor, Thompson sees this instantly, and makes an incredible save at the rim. With Tatum behind the play, it's a five on four. That forces Boston's center to pick up Klay in transition, and in a small ball lineup, that means no big men left in the paint, so Wiggins can use his size and athleticism to score on the putback. Kevon Looney was out there instead of Draymond because of his size as a finisher, rebounder, and as a shot blocker at the rim, closing the backdoor on Marcus Smart here before he drops in this wild three at the buzzer. With the lead back to four, Tatum does a nice job staying with Curry around the screen, Poole attacks the closeout, and again it's Wiggins on the offensive glass to cut it back to two. Andrew was huge in this game, grabbing eleven of his sixteen rebounds in the second half, and having a huge defensive presence throughout the night, forcing a Tatum kick out there, and Jason only made three shots all game against Wiggins, with his size and length helping him contest these high release jumpers. This possession was a clinic, with Wiggins containing him in space, then he's strong enough to avoid a backdown, and on the reset completely shuts him off again. He also had a few nice help possessions, switching off Tatum here, then lingering in the lane, and steering him into a tough fadeaway with nothing else open. A few minutes later, with the lead still at two, the Celtics late game offense stagnated again, this plagued them during the Miami series, so Jalen tries to drive into Klay, only that one rims out, and Curry grabs the rebound and pushes it down the court, and then multiple Celtics converge on him in transition, so he drags them all to the left side of the floor, while Klay runs into that open space for an open three and the lead. After a brown miss, Curry tries to attack Rob in screening action, and after Smart falls down, he's left on Curry Island, and that's not where you want to be. This mismatch hunting has defined the series for Curry, consistently attacking Boston's big men in pick and roll, and the Celtics do not want their centers dancing outside with Steph. Most teams around the league don't drop their big men against Curry because of his shooting, and historically, all of Steph's finals opponents have trapped him in some form to get the ball out of his hands in pick and roll, and force his teammates to beat them. The Cavs didn't always blitz him, but they did have their bigs up at the screen to take away Curry's pull-up shooting, then stay with him until he passed. Sometimes they would also switch a more mobile big man on him, and then recover as needed to help, basically anything to take away his pull-up three. But the Celtics have played a drop coverage with their big man throughout the series, and this just gives Curry way too much airspace to fire within his sweet spots. Notice how Rob Williams is inside the three-point line, and even when he doesn't take a three, it's an uncontested jumper in rhythm. Boston has even started their drop outside the three-point stripe, but once Al Horford starts backpedaling, Curry can just walk into an open look. This puts a ton of pressure on Steph's defender to get through the screen and push him downhill, but even when that works, a re-screen like this is a brutally effective counter. We saw another counter in Game 4, with Steph rejecting the screen, Horford thinks he's headed toward the middle, so he's out of position on this crossover, and Curry's simply too quick for him. Another trick Steph has mastered is stringing the drop out laterally. Horford wants to backpedal instead of chasing him, and that creates airspace, and that's just absurd. This also factors into how Steph is defended away from the ball. Williams drops off Looney here, so Curry comes off the screen with a ton of daylight. This ridiculous sequence in the third quarter came against the high drop. Williams is inside the line, but that's not good enough, and so Horford then says, I'll come out even higher on this screen, and Steph says, still not high enough. Boston's occasionally mixed it up, Horford switches onto him here, and Curry blows right by him, and then the issue is who is chasing Steph as he runs into the corner for a relocation three. The Celtics understand the vulnerabilities of this defensive approach, but the drop also helps prevent defensive breakdowns away from the ball, keeping that Warriors offense more in check. Since it's only the big men that drop, these pick and rolls can also leave Draymond standing in the corner, and as we discussed in the previous video, he's a non-factor in that spot. Additionally, when teams send two defenders to Curry, it unleashes Draymond's short roll passing, but the drop, by design, takes that off the table, since the dropping defender stays between Draymond and the basket. So yes, Curry's scoring has been dazzling, and in particular, he's lit up the Celtics big men in all four games, but that's part of the reason why Draymond was on the bench in a three-point game late in the fourth quarter while Curry danced around to put the Warriors up three. Green did have a really strong defensive game, disrupting a number of high-leverage passes, which led to Celtics turnovers and turned defense into offense. So, with 341 left in the fourth, Curry sent Green out there for his defense, and after another Tatum miss over Wiggins, he ingeniously called timeout to sub Draymond back out of the game so he could put Poole in for offense. After the timeout, the Celtics switch the pick and roll, and this time Horford is able to hold his own and force a miss out of Curry, but a whistle lets Kerr bring Green back in for the next defensive possession. And that was important because with Brown isolating on Klay, it's Draymond that slides over to help, then immediately closes to the corner to bother Smart, and after an offensive rebound, they work the ball back around again to Marcus, and look who's there for another contest. A minute later, Curry repaid Derek White for his Game 1 facial, and suddenly it was a six-point lead. Boston would have an answer after this Tatum kickout finds Horford for a corner three, and then, fittingly, with the game hanging in the balance, the Celtics actually trapped the Curry ball screen, Draymond sprang free on the short roll, and found Looney for a layup to ice the game for the Warriors. Andrew Wiggins was huge all night long on the glass and on the defensive end, and Steve Kerr pressed all the right buttons with those offense-to-defense substitutions down the stretch. But it was Stephen Curry's sublime shooting, en route to 43 points, 10 rebounds, and seven made threes that turned the tide in Game 4, sending the series back to the bay at two games apiece. If you want to work in basketball, I have the place for you. It's Sports Business Classroom's immersive program inside Summer League in Las Vegas. Past instructors in this program have included Commissioner Adam Silver, Mike D'Antoni, and tons of other industry leaders in the NBA and in media. Sign up using the code GREATDAY for $300 off. There's more information in the description box below if you are interested. For additional content, and to directly support this channel, check out patreon.com slash Thinking Basketball. Thanks as always for all of your support, and wherever you're enjoying the finals from, I hope that you are having a great day.