Warriors’ Steph Curry Speaks Out On Playing Time

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The Golden State Warriors bounced back from their tough loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday with a 114-91 win in an epic rematch on Tuesday. Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry is currently averaging a little under 34 minutes a game, which is quite low considering the fact that he’s the team’s star player. After the game, the All-Star responded to the amount of playing time that he is receiving this season.


Steph Curry Opens Up About Playing Time

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After the Warriors’ big win over the San Antonio Spurs in their second game of the back-to-back matchup, Curry was asked about the amount of playing time that he’s received so far this season, per the Warriors’ SoundCloud.

This topic comes up a lot. Two or three minutes here, five minutes there, of course I want to play as many minutes as possible. Of course, I want to keep subtly letting them know how I feel based on a night-to-night basis. But we got to be in a position where we do things throughout 48 minutes that that (minute) plan of attack works more nights than not. Obviously, if we have to make certain reads and decisions, you kind of make those calls, but you can’t be in a situation where that’s the nightly conversation.

Despite Curry being healthy and carrying the majority of the team’s offensive load, the Warriors have been choosing to play Curry considerably less than normal. So far this season, Curry is averaging only 33.7 minutes per game, which is considerably less than other stars in the league of his caliber.

For example, Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets is averaging 35.7 minutes per game while Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard is averaging 36 minutes regularly.


Curry’s Minutes Have an Impact

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In the Warriors’ loss to the Spurs on Monday, the team suffered a loss of eight points while Curry was resting on the bench for a total of 12 minutes. Even with his 35 minutes of play, Curry was able to drop 32 points in addition to seven rebounds and six assists. Assistance on the offense side came from Kelly Oubre Jr.’s 24 points performance and Andrew Wiggins added in 11 points.

In Tuesday night’s rematch against the Spurs, Curry put up another 32 points in only 32 minutes in this matchup. Head coach Steve Kerr chose to rest Curry and star forward Draymond Green nearing the end of the game although the Warriors kept their league for nearly the entire game.

Even after receiving some tough losses this season, it would seem that the Warriors would have their star player playing more minutes in order to give themselves a better chance of winning these games. The Warriors now sit at 13-12 for the season, improving to the eighth seed of the Western Conference. Although Curry has proven the impact that he has on the game, he isn’t on the court as long as other stars in the league.

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