Stephen Curry’s first Olympic experience hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
The greatest shooter to ever live has gone ice-cold from the field, scoring just 22 points in wins over Serbia, South Sudan and Puerto Rico. While many expected Curry to dominate from three thanks to the shorter FIBA line, he’s actually found himself clanking for most of international competition.
Still, coach Steve Kerr isn’t worried.
“Yeah, but I’m not sitting here with bated breath thinking, ‘Oh my God, this has to happen,'” Kerr said of Curry having a breakout performance. “We know what wins a FIBA game — it’s defense. We are just completely focused on our defense and part of defense is finishing the play with rebounds. The beauty of our team and the depth of our talent is that from one game to the next, we’ve got lots of guys who have the ability to get rolling (on offense).”
The United States hasn’t been hurting for offensive production, scoring more than 100 points in each game of pool play as different stars have taken the spotlight. Anthony Edwards scored 26 off the bench against Puerto Rico, Bam Adebayo dropped 18 against South Sudan, and Kevin Durant opened with 23 against Serbia.
It’s worth noting that the top scorer for the U.S. has come off the bench in each of the first three games.
LeBron James has been the United States’ best and most consistent player, but he’s done most of his work being the team’s top facilitator and scorer when needed.
Curry is in no danger of losing any minutes or his spot in the rotation, so Kerr will keep allowing him to let it fly until things turn around. That said, as the U.S. enters elimination play, all it takes is one bad shooting performance for disaster to hit the favorites.
