Stephen Curry was figuratively Superman for the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, but unfortunately, he can’t save the team by himself.
When the fictional city of Metropolis is under siege, Superman is called to swoop in and save the day. But in reality, Superman isn’t always able to save the day without a little help. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors learned on Wednesday night.
Curry did seemingly all he could to be the team’s savior finishing the game with a postseason career-high 47 points to go along with eight rebounds and seven assists. He was clearly the best player on the court and the entire Warriors offense revolved around him.
However, this was mostly due to necessity.
Curry still came out on the losing side of things as the Warriors fell 123-109 to the Toronto Raptors as their opponents took a 2-1 series lead. But it’s impossible to blame the outcome on Curry in any way.
The two-time league MVP did absolutely all he could to secure a victory attempting a playoff-high 31 shots and knocking down 14 of them in the process. But the Warriors just couldn’t overcome their injuries as their depth was tested — and it failed to pass said test.
With Klay Thompson out missing the first playoff game of his career, the likes of Shaun Livingston and Quinn Cook were asked to step up in his absence. That’s a tall task to ask of any player and unfortunately, the duo failed to do much of anything finishing with a total of 13 points, three rebounds, and four assists in a combined 44 minutes.
The Warriors also clearly missed standout reserve Kevon Looney who was lost for the remainder of the season following a broken collarbone suffered in Game 2. DeMarcus Cousins was seemingly invisible and his replacements didn’t fare too much better with both Andrew Bogut and Jordan Bell struggling to get anything going on offense.
But Thompson and Looney’s absences didn’t solely affect the offense. The Warriors struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball allowing the most points they had given up in a game since Game 3 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Houston Rockets over a month ago.
Danny Green lit up the scoreboard for the Raptors finishing 6-of-10 from three-point range with all 18 of his points coming on shots behind the arc. It’s safe to say that if Thompson were to play, this likely wouldn’t have been the case.
The same could be said for the performances of Toronto’s big men as both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka shined in Looney’s absence. It certainly didn’t help that Cousins also looked lost at times following his promising showing in Game 2.
All the while, Curry tried his absolute best to keep the Warriors in the game.
He was the team’s spark plug and motivational leader. Whenever the team needed to get the crowd behind them with a momentum changer, Curry was there to knock down a three. Whenever the Warriors needed to halt a Raptors scoring run, Curry came through with a timely feed.
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But alas, it simply wasn’t enough.
No matter how many clutch buckets Curry made, the Raptors always seemed to have an answer on the other end of the court. Every time the Warriors garnered up a bit of momentum, Toronto was there to shut it down and silence the crowd.
Curry played a whopping 43 minutes in the game, but some might even argue that’s five fewer than he should have played. Those five minutes that he sat on the bench felt like an eternity and the Warriors simply looked lost with no real scoring threat.
The big question leading up to the game was how exactly the Warriors would score outside of Curry if Thompson was forced out of action. Unfortunately, it appears we still don’t have a real answer to that question.
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Just three Warriors players finished with double-digit points and just one other besides Curry with over 11 — that being Draymond Green. On the contrary, the Raptors had six players finish in the double-digits with five of them ending the game with 17 or more points.
In many ways, the Raptors played the very game that has been the emphasis of the entire Warriors dynasty. They emphasized “strength in numbers,” and the Warriors simply couldn’t respond.
Thompson is expected to be back for Game 4 and Kevin Durant might not be too far behind. It’s still early enough to salvage this series and by no means should the Warriors be counted out.
But they can ill-afford to have another game like this one.
Curry needs help. It doesn’t matter if that help is in the form of Thompson, Durant, or another player on the roster stepping up.
He just needs help.
Curry may have played like Superman on Wednesday, but sometimes a superhero needs a little help to save the day. Here’s to hoping that the reinforcements will arrive before it’s too late.