Steph Curry Calls Out 'Disrespectful' Raptors After Warriors Take Game 2
Warriors guard Steph Curry took a shot at the Toronto Raptors on the way out the door after Golden State tied the NBA Finals at one game apiece with a 109-104 win on Sunday.
Curry called the Raptors “disrespectful” for not guarding his teammate, Andre Iguodala, in the final seconds of Sunday’s game.
Iguodala drained a wide-open 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left to seal the win.
“The whole fourth quarter they were playing some janky defense … Over the course of the game, it’s kinda disrespectful to leave Andre Iguodala open like that. … He’s made big shots like that before.”
—Steph Curry on the finish to Game 2 pic.twitter.com/eQ9Bymczv2
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) June 3, 2019
Curry also called criticized the Raptors’ defensive strategy as “janky,” which the Urban Dictionary describes as a slang term for something “run down, of poor quality, or unreliable.”
“The whole fourth quarter they were playing some janky defense, just trying to send bodies to me everywhere, and our whole roster just took advantage of it, like,” Curry told ESPN’s Doris Burke after the game.
“Over the course of the game, that’s kind of disrespectful to leave Andre Iguodala open like that with the game on the line. He’s made big shots like that before and he got it done tonight.”
Here’s an example of the “janky” defense that led to Iguodala’s game-sealing shot.
ANDRE.#IGUODALA.
God.pic.twitter.com/qwR4ZdRy3R
— La Main Au Panier (@MainAuPanier) June 3, 2019
That “janky” defense was a box-and-one strategy that did shut down the Warriors for much of the fourth quarter.
The Warriors had a 106-94 lead with 5:39 left in the game, but they didn’t score again until Iguodala’s shot with 5.9 seconds left.
Have to give the Raptors credit for flying around and making that box and one work. Takes “anyone but X” to a whole new level”. Good rotations here and they get a contest. pic.twitter.com/qFWqTOCWD7
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) June 3, 2019
Raptors coach Nick Nurse took exception to being called disrespectful.
“Well, we weren’t disrespecting anybody,” Nurse said during his post-game news conference, NBC Sports reported.
“We were up guarding hard, and we put two on Steph, and he almost threw it right to Kawhi [Leonard], right? It was pretty good defense, they were scrambling around, running around like crazy. And they found Iggy, right, and they found him, and like I said, if he’s going to take that and give us a chance to get the ball back and win the game, we’re going to probably live with that.”
“It wasn’t like we were disrespecting him and not trying to guard him. We were in a trap and rotating out of there, and again, I would like to go back and try that again about 10 times, and see if one of them doesn’t go our way,” Nurse added.
On that frantic possession, Nurse said they almost made Curry throw it away.
“We had a couple chances there on Draymond [Green], I think [Shaun] Livingston and then back to Draymond, and then Curry got it,” Nurse said. “And we didn’t want to foul, but we put a good blitz on him. We almost made him throw it away.”
“And I think if they’re going to take a shot and give you a chance there, I’m going to probably live with the one that ended up being taken. I’m going to probably roll with that,” he added.
“Probably we should have fouled before that, but like I said, he misses that, we call timeout, we go down with a chance to win the ball game unbelievably, somehow,” Nurse said.
Curry himself did not score in the fourth quarter.
And he got hit with an ill-advised technical foul with 1:08 left for throwing the ball, nearly hitting a referee in the process.
Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard then made three consecutive free throws to cut the Warriors’ lead to 106-101.
With the NBA Finals now tied 1-1, both teams will head to Oakland for Game 3 on Wednesday night at 9 p.m Eastern time.
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