On the final possession Tuesday, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski crossed paths at half speed, then Stephen Curry set a back screen for Kuminga as he darted away from the ball. Zero confusion created. Phoenix Suns guards Eric Gordon and Jordan Goodwin switched smoothly, leaving Curry covered by Gordon. Dario Šarić never moved. Podziemski, after flashing to the top, stood and watched.
Three seconds later, the Warriors were in the same proverbial boat — needing Curry to make something happen. Down three, with no timeouts and 9.4 seconds remaining, and the Suns likely to foul when he caught the ball, Curry flashed to the top. Gordon hovered right behind him. With his back to the basket, Curry turned and fired, his feet not even facing the rim, hoping to get off the game-tying 3 before the foul.
“That wasn’t even an option for the play,” Curry told reporters after the game. “I was a pressure relief trying to create some misdirection.”
Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney were on the bench watching. Draymond Green was in the locker room preparing to face the consequences of another ejection. Gary Payton II was in street clothes. None of Curry’s ride-or-dies were with him, at least not any of the proven ones. The other best option was Chris Paul, but he was the inbounder, likely to prevent another late-game turnover.
Little movement. One screen set. No chance, really. Curry’s cold night shooting ended with a frozen rope that clanked off the rim.
After the 119-116 loss to Phoenix, Curry looked more alone than he has in a long time.
He’s been here before. In 2020-21, specifically. But even then, help was on the way as Thompson recovered from injury and Jordan Poole started looking like a player. “You don’t want to see us next year,” Curry said after being ousted from the 2021 Play-In Tournament while double-teamed at halfcourt by Memphis.
The Warriors responded with a fourth championship of the era in 2022. That was just 18 months ago. And now he’s back in what feels like a desert. A sixth straight loss on the road. Another crippling close defeat after a double-digit lead. Another team that seems to have the Warriors’ number. The Warriors lost their third of the season to the Suns, who were down Kevin Durant and two other starters.
The Warriors left Phoenix with no answers for their current malaise. With Green seemingly unable to avoid controversy and now facing another suspension from the league. With Thompson frustrated after his first end-of-game benching and playing as if he can no longer handle his role as No. 2 scorer. With Wiggins suddenly, and inexplicably, unable to find his game. With Looney being often unplayable. The disarray has peaked. The valley of the season came in the Valley of the Sun.
Curry’s help is confined to reserves. That’s good enough to be competitive but not nearly enough to seriously threaten a loaded Western Conference. The Warriors entered Wednesday as the No. 11 seed, 3.5 games back of a top 6 seed and avoiding the Play-In. Most of the best teams have All-Stars who are playing as such.
In a league ruled by top-end talent, Curry is currently abandoned by his co-stars. And now the Warriors are left to figure out whether this is a temporary estrangement or the pending dissolution of a once-happy marriage of legends.
Curry has a hand in this predicament. He wanted the championship party to carry on. He wanted more veterans and distance from the inconsistency and volatility of youth. The Warriors doubled down on experience, signing Green to a four-year extension, swapping out Poole for Paul and getting seasoned veterans for the rotation instead of relying on two-way players.
They wanted to prevent development from interfering with another championship. But their brand of expertise feels so inferior to the explosiveness of youth. Curry and his championship cohorts wanted to stick with the championship formula they knew could work. Now they’re faced with the diminishing returns of experience after pushing back on evolution. Curry now has to lead their revised dysfunction. Loyalty produced this loneliness.
“We need everybody,” Curry said. “We need everybody to play at the level that we expect. And when it doesn’t happen, we lose. It’s pretty simple. That’s the predicament we’re in. We all have to play better together. Individually, we have to play better. And whatever you’re asked to do, whatever minutes, whatever rotation you’re in, be prepared to adapt. That’s going to be our challenge as a team.”
The Warriors have seven weeks before the trade deadline, which is when they can reasonably do anything to help their lone star. In the interim, the only solution is a month or two of Curry magic. But he has to do it against a resolute defense willing to do whatever to negate his production, as the rest of the league is clearly content with, and practically begging for, other Warriors to beat them.
So he can’t go 1-for-8 in the fourth quarter like he did Tuesday against Phoenix. He can’t settle for 3s when he’s cold, or be content with making the right play out of a double-team. That’s not the luxury he’s afforded. It may not be like that for the rest of the season. But that’s what the Warriors need now, to avoid a hole too deep. It risks burning out their 35-year-old superstar. But the other solutions have proven unreliable.
Curry averaged 31.6 points on 54.4 percent shooting in the Warriors’ 10 wins. He makes nearly six 3-pointers on the path to victory. In 11 losses — he missed two losses with injury — he averaged 26.9 points on 40.5 percent shooting. He averages one fewer made 3 in the same 12 attempts.
An even more micro look underscores the bigger issue. In the Warriors’ 10 wins, Curry averaged 9.9 points in the fourth quarter, shooting 56.9 percent on his 5.1 shots. In their 11 losses with him, he averaged 5.0 points, shooting 28.3 percent on his 4.8 shots.
Curry’s 73 total clutch points in 57 clutch minutes is second only to Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard (74). Curry is shooting 48.8 percent in the clutch, including 12 of 26 from 3. But the Warriors are 9-7 in clutch games because their second-leading scorer late in close games is Thompson, who’s totaled 20 points in 56 clutch minutes — tied for 50th in total clutch points — on 25 percent shooting. And after him is Podziemski with 17 points, tied for 68th with Cleveland’s Darius Garland and several others. But he’s played just 13 minutes of crunch time.
“The results are what they are. And you have to be realistic about that things need to change to get us where we want to be,” Curry said, later adding, “the urgency around our team, we feel it for sure.”
The answer is for him to deliver more. It’s a tall task for a roster with no interior offensive presence outside of Curry, one ball-handling playmaker outside of Curry, and, judging by true shooting percentage, two reliable shooters outside of Curry in Šarić and Moses Moody. Actually, it’s time to put Podziemski in that mix, though his sample is smaller. Complicating matters is any rotational decision to support Curry on offense comes at the expense of defense.
Tuesday’s loss at Phoenix was the latest example of how it’s Curry’s greatness or nothing. There is a clear distinction between winning and losing, between saving the season right now or burning another year of his eliteness. It’s all on Curry. Until the rest figure out their struggles, or until management can bring in some help, he’s gotta carry this weight alone.