Stephen Curry has been making the life of his defenders all throughout his career a living hell. The Golden State Warriors star has unlimited range and an unlimited bag of dribbling tricks to shed defenders one-on-one. He does this to the best perimeter defenders; those who cannot defend well or move with agility around the perimeter stand no chance against him. This is exactly what happened to Portland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan.Clingan is not the most mobile of big men to start with, so the Warriors targeted him in screening actions during their Friday night NBA Cup tussle. The Blazers center got switched onto Curry multiple times, leaving him helpless. On one play, Curry simply took a deep shot over a late closeout from Clingan and made a long triple. And then on the next play, Curry had Clingan isolated and put a series of dance moves on him before hitting a stepback triple that the Blazers center had no chance of contesting.
SAME SHOT.
SAME RESULT.Steph Curry gets Donovan Clingan on a switch again and DRILLS the three 🎯pic.twitter.com/Gwvrq0prOG https://t.co/a2xg6DrJh1
https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1992085075522162922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1992085075522162922%7Ctwgr%5E9be20f8914d4fd6ca50d74affda63476cb4df276%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fclutchpoints.com%2Fnba%2Fgolden-state-warriors%2Fwarriors-news-even-donovan-clingan-cant-contain-stephen-currys-3-point-shot
Playing paint-bound and slow big men is a death sentence against a Warriors team that feasts on dribble handoffs. There’s a reason why Curry finished with 38 points on the night on nine made triples.
But towards the end, the Blazers adjusted. They put in Robert Williams III, a more agile big man, to contain screening actions, and Portland, as a result, held Golden State at bay, taking a 127-123 win to put a damper on the start of the Dubs’ homestand after a grueling roadtrip.
Warriors’ main weakness gets exposed by the Blazers
For the past few years, the Warriors have never addressed their interior woes quite seriously. Head coach Steve Kerr loves himself big men who can shoot from the perimeter, and this has resulted in some lapses on the glass. On Friday night, the Blazers had an advantage of 20 on the glass, and they hauled in 12 more offensive boards than the Dubs did.
This has long been an issue for the Warriors, and at this point, it’s not quite clear what they can do to address those woes other than to play harder. This defeat on Friday marks their ninth of the season in 18 games and their third consecutive.
