NBA – After muzzling him, Kawhi declared cash on Steph Curry: “I have it…
Winners of the Warriors last Saturday after a very close end to the match, the Clippers were able to congratulate themselves on their strategy used on Stephen Curry on the final possession. Protagonist of this action, Kawhi Leonard reacted to it with frankness.
The kind of victory that can turn the tide of a season. Trailing by 22 points on their floor by the Warriors on Saturday, the Clippers were able to catch up to win at the end of the suspense (113-112).
Facing them, Stephen Curry tried to prevent this crazy scenario from happening, and was even entitled to a match point. His choice to shift Draymond Green to the corner, however, proved unsuccessful:
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 2, 2023
Kawhi Leonard honest about his anti-Curry strategy
Given his role within the Warriors as well as his liabilities, Curry appeared to be the player best able to orchestrate this final possession. The Clippers apparently understood this well and decided to place Kawhi Leonard on him.
The latter ultimately contributed to his opponent separating himself from the ball and mentioned this sequence in comments reported by Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints:
To tell the truth, on the last action, I simply tried to do my best. You know, he’s an excellent player. He can shoot from anywhere on the floor, on one leg, out of rhythm… So you just have to try to stay in front of him. My teammates also did a good job. I believe Russ was there for defensive help. I pushed him to think and in the end he passed the ball in the corner.
By managing to keep the swelling away from Steph’s hands in this action, Kawhi obviously played a big role in his team’s victory. This, without ever giving the Chef the slightest space and dissuading him from attempting one of his traditional 3-point bombs. A clutch defense that Tyronn Lue was also invited to comment on, who was keen to point out the difficulty of this exercise:
People always talk about Steph’s shooting, his 3-pointer that we’ve never seen before, but where it kills you is when you focus too much on it and it goes all the way. to the basket. He can finish with both hands, use floaters, mid-range shots, backhands… All that to say that he is hard to defend, but many people don’t understand that he can also finish in the racket .
As usual, Kawhi Leonard attributes his victorious defense against Stephen Curry to his simple desire… to stay in front of him. A recipe that may seem quite affordable on paper, but which he is one of the only ones who can apply.
