Two teams playing Game 6s on the road, one trying to extend its season, one trying to close out a series.
Two men who just a month ago were the subjects of the NBA’s heated MVP debate, facing the challenge of leading their teams to victory.
Two third quarters that went in opposite directions.
Steph Curry had a third quarter for the ages in the Golden State Warriors’ closeout win against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night. Most people will remember only the 62-foot shot (and it was a shot, not a heave or a throw) at the buzzer, but Curry did something in that quarter that even Elias’ sports geeks will have a tough time placing in context.
Curry either scored or assisted on every single one of Golden State’s 18 third-quarter points. Every one. He hit bookend three-pointers, and in between he assisted on Golden State’s other five baskets.
More importantly, four of those assists came at the crucial moment in the series. Memphis had battled back from an early 15-point deficit, and cut the lead to one with a little under four minutes to go in the quarter. The Grindhouse was rocking, with fans standing, imploring their heroes to complete the comeback and send the series back to Oakland for Game 7.
Harrison Barnes hits a jumper – assist Curry. Andre Iguadala hits a wide open 3 – assist Curry. Festus Ezili on a pick-and-roll dunk – assist Curry. Iguadala again from 3-point range – assist Curry.
In two and a half clock minutes, the Warriors scored 10 points, when they had scored only five in the previous eight minutes. They stretched the lead back to five points, setting the stage for Curry’s backbreaking 62-footer at the buzzer. Disaster averted, and Curry literally had a hand in every point.
Now, let’s check in on our other MVP candidate, the one who “deserved” the award because his supporting cast on the Houston Rockets was so weak. With 1:33 remaining in the third quarter of Thursday night’s Game 6 against the Los Angeles Clippers, James Harden was removed from the game. He was 1-for-7 shooting in the quarter, and had a technical foul.
With Harden in his warmups on the bench, his less-talented teammates completed one of the most epic comebacks in sports history, outscoring Los Angeles 47-18 from that point. Two days later, commentators are still trying to put the win in context, but struggling to find a collapse so complete as the one the Clippers endured.
It’s possible it was a coincidence that the Rockets exploded just as Harden went to the bench, and I’m sure the team will try to convince itself and the rest of us that it was so. Yet, this much is true for sure: It’s impossible to imagine the same thing happening to the Warriors with Curry on the bench.
Curry spent a great deal of time on the bench this season. He sat out a couple of games, and 17 fourth quarters. These were games when the team had enough of a lead that Steve Kerr felt safe getting his best player out of the game. I can tell you that the blood pressure of Warrior fans always goes up when Steph goes out. It doesn’t matter how big the lead is, either, because there were a few times that he had to return to a game to restore order.
Curry’s victory over Harden wound up being pretty big, as the Warriors tore through the last 20 games of their schedule. They annually play most of their games after two-thirds of the country goes to bed, and I can’t imagine many of the voters watching entire games on their DVRs the next day. You really need to see the team play to understand how much Curry makes the Warriors go.
That having been said, Curry is easy to underestimate even for the people who see him play every game. When Klay Thompson scored 37 points in a quarter this season, there was some sports-talk conversation about who was better, but it didn’t last long. Thompson can disappear for a few games at a time, but Curry is always there to pick up the pieces as he did in Game 6.
Some MVP arguments last for years, or decades. I think we can close the book on this one because of two third quarters in two Game 6s.
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Other notes from Game 6:
* The Warriors got an enormous break when the Clippers collapsed in their Game 6. Had they won, L.A. would have flown to Oakland Friday morning, and waited to see what happened with the Warriors. If Golden State won in Game 6, it would have flown home early Saturday morning and played a 12:40 local-time game against a rested Clippers squad. Now the Warriors get the advantage, with the next series not starting until Tuesday night at home. That’s two-and-a-half days more rest, which is a lifetime to an NBA player.
* The Grizzlies will always wonder what had happened if they had both of their starting guards healthy for this entire series. They won the only two games in which Mike Conley and Tony Allen both played more than 16 minutes. The wild card in that logic, however, is that the defensive adjustment the Warriors made after Game 3 to treat Allen as a non-scoring center was going to be a problem for Memphis even if he was healthy, but we’ll never know what Dave Jaeger would have done to counter it.
