The point guard battle between Steph Curry and De'Aaron Fox has just a small part of the overall series picture, writes sam_amick. But it's arguably 𝙩𝙝𝙚 most important matchup of the Battle of NorCal. And Saturday night, Fox won the duel.
As Fox discussed afterward, Kings coach Mike Brown convinced him back in training camp that he needed to take his defense to a whole new level this season. The irony, of course, is that Brown spent his past six seasons pushing Curry to be his defensive best during his time alongside Steve Kerr on the Warriors staff. To Fox’s credit, he took Brown’s challenge personally back then and is making good on it more than ever now.
But he also just learned that playoff Curry is a different sort of basketball beast, the kind that requires inhumane amounts of defensive attention and energy for every nanosecond that he’s on the floor. Just askOf all the defenders who have given it their best go against Curry on the playoff stage, the former Cavs guard who is a veteran voice on these Kings has the most famous tale of them all.
“I love Delly to death, but Delly almost died guarding Steph Curry,” Smith said of Dellavedova, who is out indefinitely at present with a broken finger. “No, literally almost died. We have footage of this man in the ice tub , like literally to his neck trying to guard this man. It’s crazy.”Fox, who mentioned Smith’s interview in his postgame press conference, surely understands it now.
“Did y’all see that clip of J.R. Smith, talking about Delly; Did y’all see that clip?” he began. “That s—‘s real. It’s real . I mean, obviously, you know, I didn’t guard Steph the entire game, but most of the first quarter, most of the fourth quarter, I guarded him. And yeah, um, that clip is real. Obviously my team wants me to do things offensively, but not worried about what I can do offensively.
“I think we’ve all seen it in spurts, but I want to be able to do it throughout the course of the game. And playing 40 minutes, scoring 38 points is cool, but just trying to be as disruptive as possible while guarding if not the best player in the world, the best player ever, you know, jump-shot wise, to shoot a basketball, not just off the catch but off the dribble .”“The guy is probably one of the craftiest players to ever touch a ball,” he continued.
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