“If Golden State wants to win this series in 7, Poole or Klay need to step up” Stephen A. Smith feels there is too much pressure offensively on Stephen Curry
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Stephen Curry and Stephen A. Smith
Stephen A Smith predicted Golden State Warriors to win the 2022 NBA Championship against Boston Celtics in a 7-game thrilling showdown. As a result of which, the sports media personality has urged Klay Thompson and Jordan Pole to share some offensive load with Stephen Curry.
Golden State Warriors leveled the series against Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics on Sunday. The home team rallied well to come back from a game down and won crucial game 2 in front of their fans. The win was a more dominant performance from the whole team, but still, Stephen Curry carried the team offensively, scoring game-high 29 points. ESPN’s Analyst Stephen A. Smith, who earlier favored Golden State Warriors for their 4th championship, called out other stars to help Steph offensively on the court. While players are struggling to register big scores, the 3-Point King has led the game in scoring in both the game.
Stephen A. Smith points out that the Celtics’ defense is very elite and the series may go till the last game of the season – it would be tiring and offensively difficult for Steph to carry the scoring load for 7 straight games. He insisted that either of the guards step up to the occasion.
Stephen Curry is over-loaded with offensive duties
Golden State Warriors build their team around 2009 draft pick Stephen Curry. But the addition of Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Harrison Barnes gave them an edge over their opponents, and went on to dominate the league. With some team defense, the Warriors heavily depend on their offensive flow o win the game.
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson did it before for the team, but now the addition of young talent Jordan Poole and shooter Andrew Wiggins allowed the veterans to share some offensive load with others. In the 2022 Postseason though, Stephen Curry has been sensational with 8 or more games with 25+ points and averages 6.3 assists per game at the same time.
He scored 34 and 29 points in 1st two games of the NBA finals, but Smith suggests that if the Warriors are looking to win it all, players other than Stephen Curry also need to step up for scoring. He said, “They are going against an elite defensive team that has some offensive firepower of its own.” Stephen A Smith also added that though the Celtics failed in the 3rd quarter of game 2, it wouldn’t be a regular occurrence.
While praising coach Ime Udoka and his team, 54 years old NBA reporter said that former 2-time MVP Stephen Curry is overloaded with the playmaking and scoring duties, especially against the Celtics’ defense. He added, “When I think about the Golden State Warriors winning the series in 7 games, which I picked them to do. I am thinking about the fact that both Jordan Poole and Steph curry or Klay Thompson and Steph Curry get it going,”
With Stephen Curry leading the team with around 27 points on average this postseason, the second top scorer for the team is Klay Thompson with 19 points average. Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins follow him with 18 and 15 points average respectively. Though Wiggins is a Warriors two-way-player, Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson need to step up for at least now 3 games to win the required 4 games and win the 7th overall NBA Title for the team.
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Kunal Chawda
(600 Articles Published)