The more things change, the more things stay the same. In spite of Monta Ellis incredible, 180 degree turnaround in terms of attitude towards this team, the Monta Ellis-Stephen Curry drama has been revived once again to describe Stephen Curry’s struggles this season offensively and defensively.
Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group reports, according to Coach Keith Smart, that Curry has been playing passively, offensively, because of the more offensive firepower on the roster this season:
Last season, when surrounded mostly by reserves with many of his teammates injured, Curry was the playmaker constantly putting pressure on the defense. The past two games, he has gotten back to that.
“I just think it’s his competitive nature,” Smart said. “He’s realizing he is valuable and he’s got to get his level of game play up. He was looking for his shot a little more. I think he needs to do that more than trying to look to pass to everyone.”
This may be true, but what do we make of the inverse relationship that Curry and Monta’s scoring has been in the last two games? As fans over at Golden State of Mind have chattered about the last few days with the offensive rhythm stalling and games coming down to the wire. Some fans chalked it up as players just naturally having the occasional bad game. And Monta, against the Clippers, was nursing a sore ankle. But Curry’s 66 point explosion over the last two games seems oddly strange against Monta’s 18-50 shooting.
Perhaps we shouldn’t read much into it, but perhaps a trend to keep our eye on in the next few weeks.