During the warm-up, you could already feel that Stephen Curry was not having a great night. The “Splash Brother” missed many of his attempts and while he usually goes to the locker room with a final success, he had to try again several times before he could finally leave the field. While the room had just plunged into darkness to project a light animation on the floor…
And in 21 minutes, the double MVP finished the match against South Sudan with only 3 points, at 1/9!
“It's an interesting dynamic with this team” he confided thus. “You have to be ready when the shots come. I'm going to take the ones I know I can take, the ones the game offers. And other than that, do what I can to help the team get good shots. Obviously, I want to shoot well, be consistent, but I also want to win.”
Steve Kerr was not worried, even if his player remains on a 5/17 shooting in the first two games of these 2024 Olympic Games, including a 3/13 on 3-pointers which obviously does not look like the best shooter in history.
“We play 40 minutes. We play fewer minutes, we have fewer shots. We have to put aside the NBA paradigm.”
But the coach reminds us that FIBA competitions are special, and that we have less time, and less shots, to get into the rhythm of a match…
“He just had a bad night” However, the coach tempers this. “I’ve seen him have bad nights and then come back with 40 points the next night. The FIBA game is very different. I’ve seen Stephen shoot 1/9 in the first half and then explode for 30 points in the second half. But this is not the NBA. We play 40 minutes. We play fewer minutes, we get fewer shots. We have to put the NBA paradigm aside.”
Especially since Stephen Curry, who admits his annoyance, is just one option among others in this group.
“There's more pressure on the shots we take. I forced a few at the end and I finished with eight shots (nine). It's about not losing confidence. We go from 20 shots per game to 6 or 10 so we have to be ready.” he concludes.
Interview conducted in Villeneuve d'Ascq
