The later the game, the more critical the possession, the deeper the pull, the slower Steph Curry’s ball seems to travel through the air. Soaring with hypnotic intentions above the chaos below. Gracefully rotating to the cinematic score of the audience gasps.
“Some of ’em,” Draymond Green said, explaining what’s going through his mind as he watches the shot, “like, ‘Jesus Christ. What the hell?’ And the majority of them, ‘That’s money.’ Even on some of the ones where I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ I’m still kind of thinking, ‘It’s money.’ It’s just like, ‘Why in the hell did he just shoot that shot?’”
This time, it was because the Warriors were down two points Thursday night, the game was down to its final two minutes, and the relentlessly physical defense of the Los Angeles Clippers got caught relaxing for a blink. After setting a back screen, Curry ended up with 6-foot-8 forward Marcus Morris Sr. defending him. Morris denied Curry the ball the first few seconds while Paul George smothered the passer. But eventually, Green was able to dump it off to Curry out near half court. His heels level with the edge of the half-court logo. So deep, Morris felt comfortable enough to squat into a defensive stance.
“I think it shocked the defender because he was so far off of him,” said Otto Porter Jr., who watched from the bench. “We were like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna shoot that.’ Sure enough, it went up.
