Steph Curry Will Not Stop Ruining My Life

Ezra Shaw. Getty Images.

Throughout all my years watching this team play, I cannot remember an opponent ruining my life quite like Steph Curry does. The closest might be Kobe, but this Steph shit is another level. I just can't escape him. Prior to last night's game I put out this tweet

Because I could feel it in my bones. It doesn't matter what is going on with GS on the season, when these two teams play the one thing you can rely on is that Steph Curry is going to ruin our lives. Ever Since that Game 4, it's been nothing but pain, all via that man. 

In fact, since taking the 2-1 series lead in the 2022 NBA Finals, the Celts are just 1-5 against GS. That lone win was a 3 point OT win last season, so let's call it what it is. If the Celts had this type of success against someone, what would we say? We would say they own that ass. Well, Steph Curry owns that ass. What else do you want me to say about it? If he has a chance to bury the Celts, he does it. Down double digits in the 4th quarter? Whatever. Down 7 with 4 minutes to go? No problem. As we watched this game unfold, deep down we all knew how it was going to end because we'd seen this exact performance before. Hell, we just went through it this time last year when the Celts were 21-5 and Steph buried them with 32/6/7 with 6 3PM and Klay chipped in 34 with 4 3PM. Last night? 33 for Curry with 6 3PM and 24 for Klay with 6 3PM.

The frustrating part of course is mostly that last night felt every bit like the 2022 NBA Finals that we're all trying to block from our memory. From the blown leads to the tightness down the stretch, to how they defended Steph while he was going off, to the Tatum struggles, it all felt way too familiar. 

So while the rational part of your brain understands that this was a nonconference road game in a tough place to play and big picture isn't the end of the world, we're sort of lying to ourselves to suggest that there isn't extra juice whenever these two teams play. If the Celts had won, we wouldn't be talking like that, so I don't think we should do it just because they lost. There are absolutely concerns with certain aspects of how they played, and the good news is there's plenty of basketball left in the season to figure that shit out.

What we'll see tonight is if the Celts go down the same path as 2022 and let the loss in GS snowball and fuck them up for a multiple week stretch, or if they're able to bounce back and immediately stop the bleeding. Losing a singular game is whatever to me, not letting it become something bigger is what matters more in my opinion.

With that said, let's dive in.

The Good

- Few things in life annoy me more than wasting awesome Derrick White performances. It seems impossible that the Celts lose a game in which he goes for 30 and makes 7 3PM, and time after time when the Celts needed a big bucket to stop the bleeding or as a response to a big Warriors make, Derrick came through for the most part

I'm sure there were a couple open looks he wishes he had back, especially in that final minute, but overall I don't have too many complaints with what we saw from Derrick in this game. Someone had to be aggressive and help Jaylen with the scoring production, and I'm never going to be upset when Derrick plays with an aggressive mindset. Big picture, that's exactly how they need him to play. This doesn't just mean 3PA either. I loved how White mixed both an outside approach with getting into the paint and using his floater, which is how you can tell he's truly being aggressive. 

He didn't have a single turnover in his 40 minutes, held Steph to just 1-4 shooting on his 18 possessions guarding him, and then you add in his 3 blocks and this was about as solid a two way performance as you could possibly get from the guard position. However long your list is of reasons the Celts lost this game, Derrick is probably not even on it. To waste an all around performance like this is annoying, and sort of reminds me of the MIL OT loss last year when Derrick backpacked everyone with 27. If the Celts get even 75% of the guy we saw last night moving forward, they're going to be just fine.

- Hard to not love everything we saw from Neemias Queta. In fact, I'd say it goes beyond just last night's 10/10

Pretty much every time he's seen the floor I'd say Queta has made the most of his opportunity. His offensive rebounding (6 OREB) is a legitimate weapon and on a team with streaky jump shooters is extremely important, just like it was with Rob. I sort of joke that Queta is Rob-Lite, but watching him……..he's kind of Rob-Lite. The defense in space still needs a ton of work, but that comes with reps. Basically the only thing Queta can do right now is play drop, which isn't exactly the best defense when you're playing the Warriors, but I continue to see a guy that comes in, plays with great energy, and is effective in his role. That's really all I'm looking for in Queta minutes.

I also don't think this means Luke Kornet should never play. He's been fine, and is a much better defender. I would just phrase it more as Queta has earned minutes of his own, especially when guys are out or sitting on a B2B. There's certainly no reason why he shouldn't continue to get an extended look, and for a depth big I feel like you could absolutely do worse. 

- In terms of the stars, Jaylen pulled his weight. Not just as a scorer, but as a defender and playmaker as well

Once again it was Jaylen's first quarter offense that got the Celts off to their great start (12 points on 5-9), and then in the all important 3rd quarter where we were all hoping the Celts wouldn't shit their pants, it was Jaylen (9 points on 3-5) who was right there with Derrick (11 points) who helped the Celts take a 3 point halftime lead into an 11 point 4th quarter lead. 

For whatever reason, he was sadly iced out int he fourth quarter (2 FGA). That's…not great. At times it felt like Jaylen was the only one willing to take it strong to the rim, but down the stretch those shots didn't exactly drop either. I also didn't love his 4 TOs, but overall I think it's fair to suggest that Jaylen gave this team enough to win. I'll take 28/8/7 on 10-22 (1-4) with good defense from the #2 option. I would probably make the case that he should have gotten more opportunities in the final quarter given how well he'd been playing, which to me is easily correctable. It's OK to play to the hot hand, especially when your other star doesn't have it going.

- Really strong minutes from both Oshae Brissett (3-3) and Payton Pritchard (4-6, 3-5). I was a little surprised Brissett didn't really see the floor again after his first quarter stint, especially when the Celts probably needed some defense/energy guys out there to help generate easy transition baskets (like he did in the 1st), but I do think he deserves props for continuing to stay ready despite having inconsistent playing time. 

- If the Celts can replicate 28 assists and just 8 TOs, chances are they are going to win a shit ton of games. Mind you, those 28 assists came even with the team shooting 41/29%. I thought the ball movement was great, and usually, if the Celts have under 10 TOs, that translates to a win. Give me that type of passing/ball security every day of the week.

The Bad

- Alright, now to the real stuff. Let's start with the first issue, which for me is defense. I don't care who you play, allowing 121 points in regulation and 132 overall on the road is never going to be good enough, I don't care who the Celts play. Holding the Warriors to just 1 quarter under 30 points is just asking for Steph to bury you late. A lot of the focus will be on the shooting, but to me, things will always start on the defensive end. 

I don't know how many times we've seen it, but the reliance on drop coverage against GS is simply not going to work. The worst part is these fuck ups come in the biggest moments. Let me ask you, have you seen a play like this before?

I get it, Al is in a tough spot here, but mind yout his is at a time where Steph was starting to cook. You know he's looking for that pullup 3, and Al is way too far back. I know it probably feels weird to be that high up on a screen, but this is Steph Curry. You HAVE to. Letting him walk into an uncontested 27fter is asking for death. That shot is a layup for him. 

When someone says this reminded them of the 2022 Finals, it because we saw the same old approach with the same result

If this is Joe's strategy, it's a bad one. If this actually isn't quite how Joe wants them to defend it but Al keeps making that mistake, that's not great either. 

I can understand switching coverages and mixing and matching between playing drop and not playing drop, I just would like to know why in the high pressure situations against this team in the clutch moments the Celts decide to play that coverage against Steph, especially when he's feeling it. That seems like a bad idea to me, but what do I know?

Since the start of December, the Celts rank 25th in the NBA in opponent 3P% (40.2%). They have been pretty dogshit at defending the three point line, and you can understand why that's a problem against a team like GS, who finished 20-50 (40%). The result? A loss. That shouldn't surprise anyone. 

- While acknowledging that Tatum sprained his ankle early, I also do not think that should grant him this all mighty pass for how he played last night. Why? Because this is not a last night thing. Since the start of 2022, Jayson Tatum has played 4 regular season games and 6 playoff games against GS. Here is how he's performed

3/16/2022: 26 points on 6-16 (3-8) with 4 TOs (W)

6/2/2022: 12 points on 3-17 (1-5) with 2 TOs (W)

6/5/2022: 28 points on 8-19 (6-9) with 4 TOs (L)

6/8/2023: 26 points on 9-23 (3-9) with 2 TOs (W)

6/10/2022: 23 points on 8-23 (4-8) with 6 TOs (L)

6/13/2022: 27 points on 10-20 (5-9) with 4 TOs (L)

6/16/2022: 13 points on 6-18 (1-4) with 5 TOs (L)

12/10/2022: 18 points on 6-21 (2-9) with 2 TOs (L)

1/19/2023: 34 points on 9-27 (4-13) with 7 TOs (W)

12/19/2023: 15 points on 5-17 (2-9) with 0 TOs (L)

I'm sorry, this is a trend. For whatever reason, Tatum has a mental block against GS. Looking at that list you see a whole lot of tour dates in terms of how he shot the ball, and that's a problem. Last night, if he was truly hurt and couldn't perform as needed, then he needs to sit and rest his ankle. Time after time down the stretch of this game we saw Tatum settle for low percentage pull up 3s when the game clearly needed him to be aggressive and attack the basket. Finishing with just 3 FTA is pretty inexcusable against a GS team that didn't really have any size on the floor. 

With Tatum, it will always come down to his decision making. Not just as a playmaker, but when it comes to his shot selection. He seems hell-bent on being stubborn with his pullup 3s, despite shooting around 30% on over 6 a game. He's a 45% catch and shoot guy so it's not like his 3 point shot is broken, what's broken is the pullup. Settling and taking that many a night despite being so inefficient with them is not maximizing his skillset. Especially when he's also so effective in drives. 

Shooting a lot of 3s isn't a problem. The types of 3s the Celtics/Tatum take are the issue. It's not an accident that almost all of his performances against the Warriors look the same, because they know how to defend him and he keeps letting them off the hook by settling. 

Again, everyone knows he sprained his ankle. But he also played 40 minutes. If Tatum is on the floor, I think it's fair to expect a certain level of play from him. It's not like he couldn't run, it's not like there weren't moments where he was aggressive. The issue was there was more settling than not.

A perfect example of this is the final shot. 

I don't really care that Joe didn't call a timeout here, his best player had the ball with plenty of time to make a correct decision. Instead, he didn't. This is entirely too predictable and something we've seen Tatum do a thousand times before. It was another example of you can change the coach, you can change the point guard, you can bring in more talent, you can build out your coaching staff, and at the end of the day the only thing that TRULY matters is the late game play/decision making of Tatum and Brown. 

If you're looking at things that might concern you for the future, this is one of them. We haven't really seen anything that suggests this approach is not what Tatum will go with down the stretch of a close game, even in a playoff series. The waiting so long to get started, the not attacking the paint, you leave your team no chance for maybe a rebound/putback or even a foul. At the very worst, you're taking a contested 2pt FGA instead of a prayer contested off balance 3PA. 

Until he realizes that, you're going to see a whole lot more of these types of possesions. 

The Ugly

- A lot of people will point to the 17-58 from three (29%), and yeah, that stinks. The twist of the knife of course is that the majority of them were clean looks

Sometimes, shit just doesn't drop. For example, in the 4th quarter, 12 of their 22 FGA were 3PA. I'm sure some would deem that too many. The thing is, 4 of them were this

That's a 45% three point shooter taking wide open 3s. Hauser hits 1 or 2 of those, the entire 4th is different. The rest of the Celts were 4-8 from deep in the 4th, and I know people don't want to hear the NBA is a make or miss league…..but it's a make or miss league. On one end you have Hauser missing wide open looks, and then on the other end this shit drops

That's life.

Of course, the day after there's a whole lot of crying over 3P volume and demanding the Celts do other things, ignoring the fact that they missed 21 shots in the paint. They did do other things, they just missed those shots too. Getting so worked up about the volume of 3s continues to make no sense to me, especially when 47 of the 58 were good looks AND the Celts took 49 shots in the paint. 

Guess what? There will be more games this season that the Celtics lose. Chances are, in those games they will shoot poorly from 3. That makes them….just like every other team in the NBA. I always feel like whenever this stuff happens, some out there only thing a process is good if they like the result. That makes little sense to me. Getting a good clean look is getting a good clean look. That process is fine. You just don't like that the open shot didn't go in. If the Celts weren't generating good looks and took nothing but low percentage 3PA I would get it, but that's not what happened.

Add in the fact that they couldn't make a layup either to save their life, especially down the stretch in the final 4 minutes of regulation

and it's clear that it didn't really matter what their approach was in this game. They just couldn't buy a bucket. 

Look, if the Celts respond tonight on their B2B in SAC, last night is pretty much whatever. Anyone who thought the Celts would sweep this trip isn't living in reality, so the challenge now becomes not letting things get out of control. The Clippers are the hottest team in the NBA and the Lakers on Christmas certainly won't be easy. We learned last night that the Celts still have a Warriors problem, but now we'll get to see if they have the same issue as last year in terms of letting it send them into a funk. If they do, things are going to get out of hand rather quickly.