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Warriors hold off Heat, Curry stars despite rare negative night
It takes a player of Stephen Curry's caliber to look good in a game that ranks as his worst of the season by at least one metric. Yet that's exactly what the NBA's early MVP favorite did in his 38 minutes during Monday's 111-103 victory over the Miami Heat at Oracle Arena.
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Curry scored nine of his game-high 31 points (11-of-27 FG, 4-of-11 3FG) in the final five minutes, including a dagger three with 26 seconds remaining, to fend off the impressive Heat in what was a tight game for most of its runtime. Yet Curry also fell below an important threshold for the first time this season by finishing with a minus-3 for his first negative plus-minus of the 2015-16 season so far. Curry had previously broken even in the Warriors' December 12 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the team's first of the season.
It bears mention that plus-minus is often a vague indicator of a player's performance, particularly when it covers only one game's worth of minutes. Yet Curry's previous game-by-game numbers are absurd enough to be meaningful — he has finished with a zero or single-digit positive in only five of 35 appearances, or just as often as he's exceeded a plus-25. That's also impressive because Curry has exceeded 40 minutes just twice, both of which were overtime games. He's not building up his totals in the fourth quarter when the game has already been decided.
So what changed vs. Miami? For the most part, the difference came down to the visitors' play against what are usually the Warriors' best lineups. All five Warriors starters finished in the negative for just the second time this season — the first saw every player do so in a Curry-less loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat also trailed by only six points as late as the 2:30 mark and threatened to hand the Warriors their first home loss of the season.
Curry's late scoring ensured that wouldn't happen, but it's arguable that Golden State only controlled the terms of the game that late due to the play of the bench. Harrison Barnes, still serving as a reserve after a long injury layoff, logged a plus-18 in 27 minutes, and all six Warriors bench players finished in the black.
Again, these are imprecise metrics, and it's difficult to talk about the win without noticing Curry's scoring, Draymond Green's excellent all-around game (22 points on 8-of-14 FG, 12 rebounds, six assists), and the fact that the entire team turned it over only nine times. Nevertheless, this contest served as another reminder that the Warriors are much more than their superstar. Curry wins the headlines, but they remain title favorites due largely to their depth and versatility.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
