For those of you who watched the Golden State Warriors game against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, you bared witness to one of Stephen Curry’s better games of the season. Curry dropped 35 points, his second highest of the season (he scored 39 against the Thunder earlier this year) while going 5 of 8 from downtown, as well as five assists and six rebounds. But what hasn’t happened much this year is that he played more minutes than Monta Ellis (49 to 47), and that extra time on the floor gave him more of an opportunity to do some work. If Curry has the ability to play this well, why hasn’t he been getting more minutes?
Head coach Keith Smart has been quick to yank Curry’s chain when he’s made a mistake in an apparent effort to help him learn from them. Smart has felt that letting him sit on the bench thinking about his miscues will work better than letting him play through them on the floor. But if you ask me, what helps a player grow as a player is actually playing the game, not sitting around and thinking about it.
Maybe it was the loss of Acie Law to a wrist injury (which might actually require season ending surgery) that gave Curry so much playing time tonight. Law is Smart’s go to replacement for when Curry has been benched, and with no one around, Curry might actually get some starters minutes from his starting position. Nothing against Acie Law, but he shouldn’t be taking minutes from as talented and popular a player as Curry because let’s be honest, no one is paying to see Acie Law over Stephen Curry, and he is certainly not getting them more wins when he’s on the floor.
Sure Steph had six of the W’s 13 turnovers tonight, and yes, if he had one less the Warriors might have won the game if want to go down that road. But the guy is still really young, and nothing helps out a sophomore slump then not getting enough minutes. Let the guy play the game and learn from it, don’t sit him down and make him watch it some more. He’s seen enough.