Finals Buzz: Steph Curry takes step forward on defense for Warriors

Steph Curry is the best shooter in the NBA, but did have you been watching him on defense? It*s a big reason for the Warriors* success.

OAKLAND, Calif. – We’ve all seen Stephen Curry the shooter. We’ve seen Stephen Curry the entertainer.

Before the season started, Warriors assistant Ron Adams knew there was another side of the eventual MVP that needed to come out and play.

Stephen Curry the defender.

Through the first three games of the NBA Finals, Curry’s subpar offense (for him) was one of the issues that had the Warriors in a 2-1 hole against the Cavaliers. But with a smaller, more athletic lineup and a reminder from defensive guru Ron Adams, Curry made a commitment to pick up his game on the other end of the floor in Game 4.

“My pitch to him was simply, the great players play both sides of the ball,” Adams told CBSSports.com on Saturday, as the Warriors and Cavs prepared for Sunday’s Game 5 with the series tied 2-2. “And that’s what you want to be, a great player. ... I think the last game certainly was his best defensive game of this series, and he needs to stay at that level for us to win this thing.”

For Curry, hands-down the best shooter in the league and one of the most lethal in NBA history, it’s going to be nearly impossible to become known as a defensive force. As long as he’s playing with three of the best defenders in the league -- Andrew Bogut, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala -- Curry won’t even be known as the best defender on his team.

But before the season, coach Steve Kerr dispatched Adams -- one of the NBA’s top defensive coaches -- to coax a little more out of Curry on that end of the floor.

“It wasn’t Steph coming to us; it was us going to Steph,” Adams said. “You lay your case out for the possibilities. He has certainly showed it this year; he was a very good defensive player most of this season. I think people looked at him and said, ‘That guy’s a pretty versatile player. He can do a lot of different things.’ And whether that helped shape his MVP run -- him internalizing the fact that yes, I am a gifted player, I can play both sides of the ball very well -- it was an immense positive for our team.”

The way LeBron James dominated both ends of the floor as the Cavs won Games 2 and 3 to take a 2-1 lead was a challenge to Curry, who blew away the field in the MVP voting with 100 first-place votes. James was a distant third, with only five first-place votes, but was playing like the trophy went to the wrong guy.

And before Game 4, which the Warriors won convincingly to even the series and regain home-court advantage, Adams reminded Curry that MVPs don’t just play one side.

“Steph loves challenges,” Adams said. “He played good defensive possessions a year ago, he just didn’t play enough of them. And so what we want from everyone on our team is we want consistency. We want everyone on every night if possible to play at their max, to be on every possession. Now we’re in a series in which that’s the only way you can play if you’re going to be successful. I am thoroughly convinced that’s where we won the last game and that is why we’ll finish off this series.”

Individual defensive statistics are the most difficult to quantify, but by all measurements, Curry has taken a big leap. For the first four years of his career, he was a net-minus defensively based on defensive box-score plus-minus. Last season, he was a net-zero, and this year, a plus-0.3 points per 100 possessions.

Among starters who played at least 50 games, Curry was sixth in the NBA in defensive rating at 97.2, a shade behind defensive player of the year Kawhi Leonard. Now, that’s points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor, an admittedly subjective stat considering the outstanding defenders on the floor with him. All five members of the starting lineup that Golden State used all season were in the top 10 in that category -- not surprising, considering the Warriors were the best defensive team in the league.

What Curry is trying to do is not be the weak link. And while he has a long way to go, the commitment he has demonstrated to improving his defense was one of the reasons that Adams wasn’t more hesitant when Kerr told him he was replacing Bogut in the starting lineup with Iguodala.

“It gives us a quick-hitting, more versatile defense -- certainly a defense that can switch more fluidly,” Adams said.

But also one in which Curry would have to make more decisions, and hold up his end of the bargain if he got caught in a mismatch on one of those switches.

“The biggest thing you do is just be long, have high hands, be aggressive, and trust the help behind you once you go to double,” Curry said. “You can't really be indecisive because that kills any defense, if you're indecisive about what you're doing. If you're going to go, you go. If not, stay back, stay home and play solid defense.”

Which is exactly the challenge that was presented to Curry months ago, before he’d held the MVP trophy in his hands and before he got to the Finals. And it’s a challenge that one of the most electrifying offensive players in the game has embraced.

Boylen to Bulls: Great get by Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg in landing Spurs assistant Jim Boylen as associate head coach. From Larry Bird with Dick Harter and Rick Carlisle, to Steve Kerr with Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams, there may be no bigger key for a first-year NBA coach’s success than having steady, experienced hands on his bench. And of course, it never hurts to hire someone who worked for Gregg Popovich.

Stock rising: Latvian teenager Kristaps Porzingis wowed scouts and executives Friday at a workout in Las Vegas in which he showed off his shooting range, post moves and all-around game. The Lakers (No. 2), Sixers (No. 3) and Knicks (No. 4) all were in attendance, with Phil Jackson himself making the trip to see if the 7-footer would be a good fit for his beloved triangle. League sources say no player’s stock has risen faster with the draft less than two weeks away.