Stephen Curry led the Golden State Warriors to a much-needed 101-84 win in Game 4 with 33 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Golden State responded to the adversity of being down 1-2 and playing on the road by putting on a fantastic performance and running the Memphis Grizzlies out of the building. Marc Gasol had 19 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Grizzlies, but there was nothing anyone could do to deny Curry of a victory on Monday.
Warriors vs. Grizzlies 2015 results: 3 things we learned as Steph Curry and Golden State bounced back
The Warriors won the game with a fantastic first half in which the league’s MVP was unstoppable.
The Warriors came out looking to set the pace and get a lead early on. Draymond Green hit from outside and Andrew Bogut found the open man to set the offense up. Meanwhile, Tony Allen was taking Golden State's bait and taking three-pointers that clanked. The Warriors got a five-point lead before Memphis found its bearings, responded and tied it.
Just as it was looking like it was going to be a close game throughout, the Warriors ended the quarter on a run and led by eight at the buzzer, after a long three-pointer by Curry.
Things got ugly fast after that. Golden State looked like the team that destroyed all comers during the regular season in the second quarter. The Warriors locked down defensively and ran every chance they got. The MVP version of Curry showed up and there was nothing the Grizzlies could do to contain him. When the dust had settled the Warriors were ahead by 17 at the break.
It was hard to see Memphis making a comeback, but since they are such a tough and relentless team, it didn’t seem out of the question. The Warriors made sure it didn’t happen. They never let up and controlled the game, showing how dominant they can be on both sides of the ball by making a contender look helpless.
Now the series is tied and moving back to Oracle Arena, where the Warriors will try to regain control in Game 5.
3 things we learned
1. Stephen Curry is terrifying when he’s on
Curry finished the first half with 21 points, four assists and four rebounds and essentially closed the game then and there. Every time the Grizzlies got a little momentum going their way, he would sink a bucket that delivered the message: Memphis should just stay down because it was not going to make a comeback.
The league’s MVP had a performance that reminded everyone that when he’s feeling it, he’s unstoppable. As good as the Grizzlies are, if he can have two more of those in the next three games, the Warriors will advance.
2. The Warriors need more from Klay Thompson going forward
The blowout win hid another mediocre performance from Thompson. He finished with 15 points but was largely ineffective while the Warriors built their lead, going 3-of-9 from the floor for six points in the first half. Once again, Allen made life miserable for Thompson and forced him into tough shots.
Thompson hasn’t been bad -- he was averaging 17 points on 50 percent shooting for the series coming into Monday. Yet his three-point shooting percentage is down, he’s turning the ball over too much and generally doesn’t look like the All-Star that he is. The Grizzlies will fight back in Game 5 and the Warriors need Thompson to be more efficient to come out ahead.
3. The lack of three-point threats make it hard for the Grizzlies to erase big deficits
The Grizzlies shoot few three-pointers and prefer to focus on inside scoring or shots from mid-range. It works for them because they have such a good defense that they don’t need to outgun other teams. The problem comes when they find themselves in large deficits and don’t have the three-point shot as a weapon to make comebacks.
They can shave big deficits because of their defense, but they have to be almost perfect on that end because they rarely can trade buckets and come ahead by one point thanks to an outside shot. They finished 4-of-18 from beyond the arc and that’s a big reason why they couldn’t complete the comeback. Every team has a weakness and the lack of shooters is Memphis’.
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