Curry’s offensive progress has been especially encouraging as of late. Many (including myself) have discounted its significance because of his terrible defense and the fact he often gives up as many points as he scores. I decided to watch him especially carefully this game to see how his offense and defense balanced out. I have also always said he fights for very few boards and accidentally stumbles upon the majority of them – I decided to look for this as well.

Each entry is time stamped, but I’m sure they are not entirely accurate. I’m also sure I missed a few things, but paid pretty close attention to him throughout the game. Looking at the stat line, Curry ended up with 3 blocks (all of which I caught), 2 steals (one of which I missed, one of which was just an instance where a loose ball bounced right to him that I didn’t think it was important to note), 1 assist (which I got), and 9 boards (8 of which I got). All this is to say I think I paid pretty close attention to him throughout the game so I believe my “Curry summary” is pretty accurate.

Reminder: This is looking at his defense and rebounding ONLY. Obviously he exploded tonight offensively.

Poor moves on his part OR moves that required no effort on his part (specifically in terms of rebounding) are in normal font. Good plays are bolded.

-(1st quarter, 11:26) Curry looking forward guarding the paint while Bogut is wide open right underneath the hoop. Bogut gets the ball but botches the layup.
-(10:08) Patterson facializes Curry with a vicious dunk
-(9:31) A board literally bounces then winds up in Curry’s hands
-(8:50) Curry tips in a Lee miss, counting as an offensive board
-(7:23) Mo Williams blows by his man and Curry to hit a layup
-(6:44) Curry happens to be standing where the ball bounces and grabs a rebound
-(~6:00) Curry is hustling all over the floor on defense on this Buck possession
-(5:10) Curry reaches his arm way back and snags a board
-(2:54) Curry gets a hand on Charlie Bell’s shot and blocks it

-(2nd quarter, ~11:50) Curry loses his man after a Buck inbound pass from under their own basket and Dan Gadzuric slams home an alley-oop.
-(11:10) Gaduzuric hits a shot on Curry, but Curry stayed with him the entire time and played good D.
-(10:00) Curry misses a layup, then grabs his rebound and makes the second. He’s the tallest and biggest guy around at the time with two Bucks around him, one looking on.
-(1:30) Curry misses a layup, then a tip, then grabs the board again and finally hits a layup. This “miss your own layup but grab your rebound” sequence he gets credit for – he was fighting hard and against taller players than the time before.
-(1:18) Curry has position but doesn’t box out or go for the rebound. Someone else on the Knicks goes flying by and winds up with it.

-(3rd quarter, 10:27) Bogut hits a hook shot over Curry. Curry played good D on him though – no complaints.
-(9:00) The ball falls right by Curry and he stands there and watches as Crawford hustles to it, rather than going after it himself.
-(8:00) Curry stands and watches another rebound bounce near him. David Lee and another Knick, about the same distance away from the ball Curry was, go flying after it. Lee winds up with the ball.
-(5:45) Curry has an insane block of Bogut. Bogut was hoping to pound it down on Curry Ruben Patterson style, but got embarrassed.
-(4:00) Patterson looks to hit a short jumper, but Curry has other ideas, as he swats away his third shot of the night.
-(3:00) This one shouldn’t count because it doesn’t have to do with defense or rebounding, but Curry has a sick behind the back assist out of a double team to DLee under the basket. DLee hits a reverse dunk.
-(1:15) Gadzuric makes Curry look silly again, getting by him and dunking.

-(4th Quarter, 8:00) Curry stands close nearby as Mo Williams drives in and hits a layup
-(7:00) Charlie Villanueva begins to drive in from the corner. Curry is in the middle of the paint with his man up by the three point line. He glances at Villanueva as he gets closer and closer to the basket, Curry stands still. Villanueva ends up with an uncontested layup.
-(~6:00) Curry is close to the ball as it comes down from the rim after a miss, and he stands completely still and watches it bounce to a Buck.
-(5:30) Redd beats his man and drives to the hoop. Curry is standing under the basket. He holds his position as Redd gets closer and watches Redd float in for an uncontested layup.
-This prompts Clyde to say something to the tune of “We’ve talked about Curry’s shot blocking in this game, but right now the lane is wide open. This is the time where the Knicks need to step up and fill the middle.”
-(4:55) Curry has a great boxout on his man, which allows Robinson to grab a board.
-(3:45) Curry grabs a rebound off a missed Michael Redd free throw. He looks frustrated (still steamed over a previous foul call) and ends up turning the ball over.
-(~3:00) Curry is camped out in the lane and called for a three second violation.
-(~2:00) Again Curry has good position for a rebound when a shot goes up, but doesn’t box out or go after it. He stands still. Again it goes to someone else.

Rebounding
Of the 8 rebounds I remember watching him snag, he fought for only 1 of them. 3 were off his own missed shots that went right back at him (2 of those he was aggressive in bringing down, but the ball did go right back to him), 1 was a tip shot that he was all alone for, 1 was off a missed free throw that went to him (that he immediately turned over), 2 others fell right into his hands.

Defense
Curry pleasantly surprised me in the first three quarters, playing pretty good D and winding up with three blocks. Two of them were emphatic. In the fourth he turned into the old Curry, where the lane is anybody’s but his. He was very frustrated in the fourth, when Brian Skinner started crowding him and guarding him very well. This could be why his performance dropped on the defensive end. Curry’s defensive assignments certainly did not end up coming anywhere close to Curry’s offensive production, so for this game he definitely didn’t give up as many points as he scored. (Even with the flurry of layups in the fourth. He would only be partially responsible for those anyway.)

Overall
Wish he would put the same effort he puts in his offense into his defense and rebounding. He continues to improve offensively, but my concerns about his defense and rebounding stand. Keep in mind the Bucks don’t particularly have any good big men offensively or defensively, especially with Bogut having a terrible outing. It should have been a field day for Curry on the glass as well as offensively. Also, the fact they don't really have any good defensive big men helps explain Curry's offensive explosion. Once he was being guarded tightly in the fourth he had a much more difficult time doing anything.

All that being said, great offensive outing, great streak he has going, tremendous improvement so far. Just hopes it starts to affect his defense and rebounding as well.


[Edited by - mythfaze on 12-10-2006 12:53 AM]

Looking at your stat analysis it looks like he was tired in the 4th quarter. I wonder if conditioning is still an issue when it comes to playing defense with him.

He may have a ways to go on his conditioning and on his defense and rebounding, but all these have improved. Last night he played 40 minutes. That wasn't going to happen last season. His season average of 32 1/2 min is a career high. His season average of 7.4 boards per game is nothing to brag about, but is also easily a career high. Curry's working hard to become a better player - in every way and I'm pleased with his progress.

Good post. This was by far CUrry's best game, but I agree that he needs to improve his defense and rebounding. The coaches and players need to stay on him about his help defense and his tenacity on defense in general. He also needs to improve his passing out of the double team. He takes far too long to make a decision. That pass to Lee was a lucky bail-out pass that would not have been possible if Lee had not dove to the basket, which he is supposed to do. Either IT has not set up the offense to give Curry clear passing options out of the double team or Curry does not know the offense well enough to know where his teammates are, or maybe he gets tentative trying to make a pass b/c he is worried about a turnover, either way, he needs to work on his passing if the team is going to run the offense through him.

curry has been playing more than 35 minutes a game this past few games he has never played that much plus....after the all star game he will be better conditioned and other teams better watch out

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Posted by holfresh:


The "problem" in the 4th quarter is that Skinner played great defensively and denied him in the post...The Knick players had problem getting him the ball...No reflection on Curry at all...That is not failing to "step up".

I'm talking defensively.

"Reminder: This is looking at his defense and rebounding ONLY. Obviously he exploded tonight offensively."

Did anyone mention the fact he's only 24 years old?

yeah, but our dearly beloved Eddy has bigger hair than both of them put together

Ok, Skinner didn't really do a great job on Eddy in the 4th. They stopped feeding him the ball down low. Every time he got the ball, he scored in 2 easy moves!

Not getting the ball and not getting the calls frustrated him. He finished the 3rd with 32 and should have dropped 40. They need to start going to him a lot more often. Another thing, Lee and Curry work perfect together. That combo should not be messed with right now. Atleast let Frye earn his way back into the starting 5.

Posted by Anji:

Posted by SugarRayRichardson:

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Nuff said, who the funk starts a thread with, "Let's keep it in performance in perspective", WHEN A PLAYER HAS A CAREER NIGHT AND THE TEAM WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Edited by - anji on 12-10-2006 12:11 PM]

Umm... me? Silly me, here I though perspective was a good thing. I see, objective analysis and criticism only on nights when the team loses – guess I wasn’t paying attention the day that was announced. Another mandate of the Cablevision era?