Knicks can't contain Steph Curry in second half, fall to Golden State at MSG
Golden State guard Stephen Curry reacts after scoring a three-point basket late in the fourth quarter as Knicks forward OG Anunoby runs past in an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Steph Curry limped into Madison Square Garden Tuesday evening still showing the effects of the ankle injury he suffered Monday in Charlotte. But the question of whether he would be on the floor at game time was enough to elicit a laugh from his coach.
“One trip to the Garden,” Golden State’s Steve Kerr said pregame. “Pretty sure he’s going to do everything possible to play. He also knows he can’t do anything silly.”
For Curry, it meant one more chance to put on a show in the spotlight of the Garden, a place where he has not lost a game in more than 10 years and where a player begins to count down and treasure the chances they have in the iconic building as the years grow. So he seemed to shake off the limp and put on his usual pregame show with the seats around the court already filled with cameras and recorders.
The Knicks’ defense was just as focused on Curry, but that only made the burst that would come seem inevitable. And it did, 14 points in the third quarter, 28 points and nine assists on the night, and a back-breaking catch-and-shoot three with defenders tightly clinging to him in the fourth to help Golden State pull away for a 114-102 win.
“Even in college you only get one time a year in here,” Curry said in a postgame interview on the court. “The energy’s amazing. Obviously, the basketball history.”
If Jalen Brunson elicits MVP chants from Knicks fans in almost every arena he travels to, the large contingent of fans cheering shots and passes from Curry seemed dedicated strictly to him. When Kevon Looney converted a layup with 2:39 left to stretch the lead to 12 and send the Knicks, shoulders slumped, to a timeout, it was the pass from Curry that had the crowd on its feet.
And with 1:29 left, after the Knicks got a stop, Mikal Bridges turned the ball over as he tried to save it and the ball moved to a wide-open Curry. As he swished the three the crowd was as loud as it had been for the Knicks all night.
“You’ve got to contain him and we obviously didn’t do that in the second half,” Brunson said. “He’s able to get hot at any given moment. We’ve just got to adjust and not give him the light of day. That’s easier said than done. You’ve got to make it tough for him.”
The task for Brunson took on an added level of difficulty Tuesday as the Knicks were without Karl-Anthony Towns, who was not with the team for personal reasons. Mitchell Robinson, on a minutes limit, had just two games and 25 minutes under his belt since returning from nearly 10 months on the sidelines.
The Golden State defense seemed to sell out to stop Brunson even more than the Knicks did for Curry. And, after a 17-point first half, it worked. Brunson scored just two points in the second half before that final 2:39 when the deficit was double figures. He finished with 25 points. OG Anunoby picked up much of the scoring load with 29 points.
“To start, we were low energy coming out to start the third,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So they made up that ground real fast. Then we fought back and went back and forth. Then a couple of mental errors left wide-open three-point shooters. Against a team that good you can’t do that, particularly when you’re shorthanded. You can’t throw possessions away.”
After a back-and-forth start to the game, with Brunson leading the Knicks with nine points and three assists in the first quarter to build a 26-25 lead, Cam Payne and Anunoby drained consecutive threes to give the Knicks a 34-27 advantage early in the second.
The Knicks were able to maintain that through the first half, taking a 55-47 lead into the break. And while it was Brunson who was leading the offense, it was the defense spearheaded by Bridges that kept Golden State — and specifically Curry — in check. Curry had eight points on 3-for-9 shooting and was 1-for-3 from beyond the arc in the opening half.
But, as many have tried for 16 years, what feels like having Curry contained can change in a flash. And it did at the start of the second half when Curry scored six points in the opening 89 seconds. He put up 14 points in the third quarter and helped Golden State take the lead before the Knicks fought back. But, with a three from Buddy Hield with 2.2 seconds left, Golden State took an 82-81 lead into the fourth quarter.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
