By any measure Monday night's game was one of the worst performances we've seen from Stephen Curry in a long time. The 2x MVP was well below his best as the Golden State Warriors suffered a shock 114-105 loss to the short-handed Denver Nuggets at Chase Center.
The Warriors looked sluggish and like a team that came in underestimating their opponents, with that exemplified in an underwhelming performance from their leader who scored just 20 points in nearly 36 minutes.
Curry went just 6-of-21 (28.6%) from the floor and 4-of-14 (28.6%) from beyond the arc, with Golden State shooting just 8-of-33 (24.2%) from 3-point range as a team. But more so than the shooting inefficiencies, it was Curry's turnovers that were arguably more costly in the nine-point defeat.
The 37-year-old had seven turnovers including five in the second-half, with some inexplicable brain fades often halting any momentum his team was trying to build. One of the more frustrating ones came in the final two minutes when Curry attempted an ill-advised alley-oop to Jonathan Kuminga who was unprepared and subsequently fumbled the ball out of bounds.
The Warriors should have rested Stephen Curry on Monday
The biggest post-game topic wasn't necessarily about Curry's performance, but whether he should have been playing at all. The Warrior superstar had been battling back soreness in Saturday's game against the New York Knicks, and was listed as questionable to face the Nuggets all the way up until the pre-game warmups.
Curry was noticeably fatigued throughout Monday's game, but that didn't stop Steve Kerr from playing him for nearly 36 minutes in a game where the Nuggets were without stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
“He’s tired. Steph’s been carrying us for a month. He’s been amazing. We gotta get him some rest," Kerr said after the game. "We’ve got to absolutely consider giving him the night (off).”
Kerr's comments would suggest Curry is very likely to rest on Tuesday's second night of a back-to-back against the Milwaukee Bucks. While it's easy to say in hindsight after Golden State lost, but the opportunity to rest Curry might have been missed in leaving him out of Monday's game.
The Warriors still would have had a strong chance of beating the Nuggets who were minus Jokic, Murray and Christian Braun, and would have allowed Curry to return to face Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Bucks.
Instead, Golden State will likely battle that All-Star duo without Curry's weaponry. Perhaps the plan was to rest Curry at the same time Brandin Podziemski returns, with Tuesday's game previously set as the target for the second-year guard who's now missed five games with his own back concern.
A Warriors loss on Tuesday would see them drop behind the Minnesota Timberwolves in the standings, while they could fall to eighth if the L.A Clippers also beat the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Intuit Dome.
