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Steph Curry Opens Up About Shooting Struggles
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Steph Curry's shooting struggles have persisted much longer than many expected. Since his dominant performance against the LA Clippers on November 28th, Curry is averaging 24.9 PPG on 37.4% from the field and 34.3% from deep. From the beginning of the season until that point, Curry was averaging 28.6 PPG on 46.6% from the field and 42.3% from deep. For whatever reason, Curry has had two separate seasons. The 19 games up until that heater against the Clippers, and the 18 games since.
Steph Curry was recently asked about his shooting percentages, and he said, "They're lower than what I want, and that's gonna happen from time to time. I'm never results-based, so the approach and what you do going into every game remains the same, and eventually it will turn around. You just can't lose confidence."
On what specifically he can do to break out of this slump, Curry said, "It sounds so simple... You have to be able to take what the defense gives you. I think at certain points you can get into a little bit of a rush if you haven't found a good look in a while, maybe if you've made two in a row you feel like you have to press a little bit, but that's on me. The rest of it is just trying to keep it as simple as possible, knowing that we have a lot of options and threats. The more you can create good shots throughout the course of a game, the more demoralized the defense gets, and their game plan kinda goes out the window. We haven't really forced that to happen as much lately."
Despite Curry's shooting struggles, the Warriors are still 30-10, just a half-game behind the Phoenix Suns for the top spot in the Western Conference. The difference, is that the Warriors were 17-2 in their first 19 games, and just 12-6 in their last 18. While still solid, there is a distinct difference in the team's success when Curry is shooting well, and when he is not.
While Steph's shooting slump is both uncharacteristic and hard to explain, his career-long body of work indicates that he will break out of it in a big way. For example, Steph's numbers went up across the board after last season's All-Star break. His scoring went up by 5.2 points per game, and his three-point shooting went up by two full percentage points. He ultimately captured the scoring title, and dragged an abysmal Golden State roster to the play-in tournament.
Steph is an all-time great, which is a why an 18-game stretch of poor shooting should be viewed as confusing, but ultimately insignificant.
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