Explain One Play: Stephen Curry cold-blooded go-ahead three

This is one article out of a series of Explain One Play articles. For the full updated index, go to The Explain One Play series index.

Well, that was close.  The game was tied at 101-101 with a minute to go when Stephen Curry uncorks this cold-blooded beauty, here for your viewing pleasure.

Just another day at the office for Mr. Curry with a stop-on-a-dime between-the-legs step-back three-feet-behind-the-line three pointer. Folks, we are getting spoiled. I mean, this awesome move and shot would be a career highlight for most people, but I'm not even sure it makes the Top 10 Curry plays of the last two weeks.

This is actually a set play that is meant to create a high pick and roll for Curry with Klay Thompson as the screener. Any play that ends with a Curry-Klay pick and roll is a great idea. This is a good thing, because the Warriors ran a kind of sloppy tired version of this play at Utah and only Curry's icy shake and bake made the play work.  So let's see what the play is supposed to look like.

What The Play Is Supposed To Look Like, Version 1

In brief, it's supposed to look like fake HORNS flowing into a Curry-shooter pick and roll, where each of their defenders gets screened along the way.

As you can imagine, a Curry pick and roll with a shooter is all kinds of pain for a defense, because:

• it is very hard for one person to guard Curry when he is using a screen
• but if the other person helps then a good shooter like Klay will have an open shot
• and the smalls who guard Steph and Klay are used to guarding the ball on pick-and-rolls, not the screener, so there is likely to be difficulty for the two to cooperate on defense

Here is a previous version of the play.

Feel free to rewatch to catch these details:

• The play starts in a HORNS-like formation with two small shooters (Curry and Klay) in each corner and two bigs near the elbows. This creates a bit of deception as there are many plays out of the HORNS formation.
• Curry zipper cuts straight up the lane and gets the ball. Along the way the right elbow big David Lee screens Curry's man so he can't deny the pass to Curry. Lee uses his elbow so Curry's defender feels the screen.
• Klay now comes up and gets a screen from the left elbow big Speights, who kind of slips the screen (which is not a good idea in this play... we'll see a better screen in the next version). Now Klay is going to set a screen for Curry. Klay's man #44 hustles to jump out at Curry as Steph turns the corner, but Klay's man seems to think he's hedging Curry and that he needs to get back to Klay. So he stops pushing Curry to the side and returns to play,  and Curry hits the turbos and blows to the hoop for a nifty floater finish.

What The Play Is Supposed To Look Like, Version 2

Back To The Present

Okay, now we know what the play is supposed to look like, and we saw the Pelicans try to defend the Curry-shooter pick and roll by Hedging (screen defender jumps out and returns to screener), and the Rockets by what looks like a developing trap.  The Jazz defend the play by switching the screener's defender onto Curry.

Here is the Jazz game version of this play embedded again for your non-scrolling convenience.

Now we can see that this is a sloppy, tired version of the play.

• Curry doesn't go all the way to the corner for a HORNS look,
• Festus Ezeli doesn't even bother to screen for Curry on the zipper cut (maybe he doesn't know he should?),
• Draymond Green barely makes contact on his screen for Klay, so Klay's defender #5 Rodney Hood can get right up to the screen and switch onto Curry.
• For most of the play, Ezeli is wandering around out of bounds under the hoop. I'm not convinced he has any idea what this play is.
• Ezeli and Andre end up standing next to each other OUT OF BOUNDS BEHIND THE HOOP as the shot goes up. And therefore...
• Draymond is the only one in position to rebound a miss.

"They switched, which was probably the best way to guard that play," Curry said of the sequence. "But I was able to act like I was turning the corner and get him off balance, and I was in rhythm once I got it to my spot, and thankfully it went in."

Interim Warriors coach Luke Walton explained, "We don’t use it a ton, because there’s not a ton of ball movement in that play. It’s kind of a quick hitter we like to use when appropriate, but it’s two pretty dangerous players that are involved."

Final Thoughts

• In theory this play should rock. It has deception, motion, screen-the-screener action, Curry-Klay pick and roll. And yet, now in three clips we've seen Curry has needed extraordinary Super Saiyan Steph powers to score.
• Hat tip to @HalfCourtHoops, whose Youtube videos save me hours of searching whenever I need archival footage of Warriors plays.

Bonus Quiz

In honor of Shaun Livingston's first 3 as a Warrior (and from B-Ref, only his 11th three-pointer in 561 NBA games) and by request of @joebw11, we present the play. Quiz: recognize this play and name what other NBA team is famous for running it.

Now dot version. (HA, I just noticed that this diagram thinks Ezeli is the one who made the 4-on-3 drive and kick. If he could do that, he would be a max player!) (ps. Anyone who uses this auto-generated data better do some sanity checking. I've caught two errors in eight diagrams without even trying hard.)

This is one article out of a series of Explain One Play articles. For the full updated index, go to The Explain One Play series index.

The Explain One Play Series So Far

Offense

• Explain 1 Play: Brandon Rush Rides Elevator for 3 (HORNS Elevator Doors)
• Explain One Play: Klay Sweet 3 Restarts Blowout (Motion Weak)
• Explain One Play: Curry No-Look Pass For Barnes 3 (Warriors Early Offense)
• Explain 1 Play: Barnes Tries To Be Not "Terrible" (HORNS Elbow Get)
• Explain One Play: Thunderous Green-Ezeli Alley-oop Dunk (Recycled Double Screen)
• Explain 1 Play: Busted Elevator = Draymond Wins (Elevator Doors, Baseline Out of Bounds)
• Explain One Play: Curry & Green's Favorite Play (High Pick and Roll)
• Explain 1 Play: Iguodala's Last-Gasp 3 Saves W's (Split Screen, Sideline Out of Bounds)
• Explain 1 Play: Awesome Curry Bank Shot And-1 (Warriors Rip, Floppy, Curl)
• Explain One Play: Curry Screen = Barnes Dunk AGAIN (Warriors Rip)
• Explain One Play: Warriors + Floppy = Klay 3 (Floppy)
• One Play: Warriors + Triangle Offense = Barnes 3 (Post-Cross/Guard Squeeze)
• One Play: The W's Stop and Steal a Clippers Play (High HORNS)
• One Play: That Absurd No-Look Backwards Curry Pass (Simple Pick and Roll)
• One Play: 2 Spurs Recipes + Curry = Klay 3 (Hammer and Triple Loop)
• One Warriors Play: Spurs Play + Curry = Bogut Dunk (Motion Strong)
• Two Wild Threes from a Wild Game Three (Post-Cross)
• How the Warriors fought the blitz in Boston, Brooklyn (HORNS, Pick and Roll, Blitz)
• Understanding the Warriors Weave (The Weave!)
• Notes on Turnovers: The Movie!
• Notes on GSW's New Offense: Deception & Motion (HORNS and Post-Cross)
• Notes on the Warriors' new offense: Feeding the post (Basic Principles, Post-Cross)

Defense