In the end, it proved to be too little too late, but Stephen Curry showed flashes of life Tuesday night, and put a major scare into the Cleveland Cavaliers despite their 96-91 win in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Curry scored 17 of his team-high 27 points during a frantic fourth quarter rally, and the Golden State Warriors have to feel some measure of confidence heading into Game 4 now that the League MVP has finally re-discovered his shooting touch.
Bottled up by Matthew Dellavedova and the Cavs’ relentless defense through the first three quarters, Steph at last began to make shots and nearly led the Dubs to an unlikely victory.
Per the SF Chronicle:
In the end, Curry could not overcome either his own mistakes or his team’s. After three lackluster quarters in which the Warriors looked like a team that wasn’t particularly interested in winning the NBA Finals, their solid fourth quarter wasn’t enough. The Warriors lost 96-91 and now trail the Cavaliers two games to one. […] “We’ve got to bottle up what we did in the fourth quarter and bring that for 48 minutes starting in Game 4,” Curry said.
We got a flash of it in the fourth quarter. After scoring just 10 points through the first three quarters, Curry put on a show in the fourth. […] “We became the aggressors,” he said. “For us to win this series, we have to play that way the whole game. We were playing hard and were into it, but there were no results to show for it. You can’t really get any spark.”
“You want to show some fight,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “And I thought in the third quarter we were hanging our heads a little bit, and it was good to see us bring the fight to the game. … Steph never loses confidence. I just thought he lost a little energy and, I don’t know, life. We just need life from everybody, we need emotion from everybody.” […] “I’ve got to be aggressive,” Curry said. “Whether I’m making shots or not, I’ve got to stay vibrant. The team definitely feeds off my energy and my joy for the game. If it’s not going my way, I’ve got to find a different way.”
