Steph glad Kerr skipped normal rotation as star torched Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Steph Curry has been waiting for the explosion to come. To put his terrible January in the rearview mirror and get back to being Steph.
The Warriors star did just that Monday, scoring 40 points, including 21 in the fourth, as Golden State beat the Houston Rockets 122-108 at Toyota Center. Kevin Porter Jr.‘s gamesmanship lit the fuse, and Curry exploded in the fourth quarter. As Curry was ripping the nets in the final frame, Steve Kerr elected to forgo his regular rotation pattern, which usually has Curry leave in the middle of the fourth for a rest, and instead, let Steph cook.
Curry, who could feel that he had the shooting touch Monday, was glad he didn’t have to campaign to be left in the game.
“No, I wasn’t thinking about it at all,” Curry told reporters after the game. “I knew — tonight was one of those that I know how I have been playing and how I have been shooting and all that. I had it going, so it would have been not a welcome sight to see somebody come get me on the substitution right then. It was the right call for sure. I won that one tonight.”
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Kerr has seen the Curry explosion enough to know that when Steph gets going, it’s best to just get out of his way.
“When he gets going, the game is his,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “And we just kind of let him do what he wants to do. If we see something, we might call a play during a timeout. But he was just going, and guys did a good job of setting screens and spacing the floor, and he got loose.”
During his first 14 games in January, Curry shot better than 50 percent from the field just once and only hit 50 percent of his 3-point shots in two contests. He hit both those marks Monday, shooting 56.5 percent from the field and an even 50 from deep.
He scored 21 of the Warriors’ final 28 points to allow Golden State to finally pull away from the pesky Rockets.
Once Curry got going, Kerr did the right thing and put the rotation pattern in the trash. Just sit back and watch the show. The slump is over, and not a moment too soon.