Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry was no longer surprised he only had two free throws during their 128-110 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, February 22, at home.
“I’ve never been what they call a foul baiter or worried about selling calls,” Curry told reporters after another scoring masterclass. “I’m not really obsessed over it. I made jokes like when ‘I got two free throws a day I cheered’ and let out a nice little yell just being sarcastic.”
Despite the lack of superstar calls, Curry still managed to lead all scorers with 32 points, 30 of them coming from 6 3-pointers and the other half of his dozen made field goals came from midrange jumpers and layups.
Arguing With Game Officials Is Not Steph Curry’s Thing
Curry felt there were “like two or three possessions in the last three games where there should have been a foul.”
But the league’s greatest shooter in history has more important things to focus his energy on than arguing with the game officials.
“I’ve been trying to not even engage in that and for the most part, it’s helped because you can’t control whether you get there or not,” Curry said. “You still got to do what you need to do to help your team win — make an impact, score the ball whatever it is. So it’s nice to have this window where no matter if I’m getting [to the free throw line] or not, I’m still shooting efficiently and getting where I need to on the floor. But if there are foul calls I hope that they’re called. So it’s just one of those you don’t get distracted by type of mentalities.”
Curry is only averaging 4.3 free throw attempts in his career. This season, his 5.0 free throw attempts ranked 28th overall in the NBA and no. 8 among all point guards. Only 15.9% of his 23,145 career points have come from free throws.
‘The Most Skilled Player’
If Warriors coach Steve Kerr has his way, he’d like his superstar to get more free throws. But he also acknowledged that Curry going against the league’s current is what makes him great.
“He’s the most skilled player I think I’ve ever seen,” Kerr said of Curry. “This is a league where the game is geared towards the offensive player as we know, so a lot of guys are taking advantage of that and seeking fouls. Steph has just never played like that. He doesn’t do that all that stuff.
He just tries to get space because he knows when he gets space, he’s going to more than likely knock down a shot and he doesn’t spend a lot of time at the line unless we have a lead and people are fouling down the stretch but he’s so good and so skilled that he finds a way anyway.”
Sinking 3-Pointers Like Free Throws
Kerr revealed he and Curry had a discussion about it in passing. But he is not forcing his superstar to do something he is uncomfortable doing.
“I think what we’ve talked about over the years a little bit,” Kerr said, “just mixing in some pump fakes and when guys are flying into him, it’s not a bad play to use a pump fake and just draw a shooting foul, get three free throws.
On the other hand, he loves the fly-by, takes one dribble to his left, and knocks down the shot so easily. So it’s just not something we’ve spent a whole lot of time on.”
It’s part of Curry’s showmanship.
However, Kerr said getting to the free throw line, especially in certain games, especially in the playoffs could help them when teams are zeroing in on him on defense.
“It’s great for Steph and Klay [Thompson] to draw people off their feet and get to the line,” Kerr said. “It’s a big help but it’s just never been something that they’ve relied on too much.”