Getty Jordan Poole handles the ball in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
It was a rough start to the NBA Finals for Jordan Poole, but Steph Curry is confident that his young teammate will bounce back.
Poole struggled as the Golden State Warriors blew a 12-point fourth-quarter lead against the Boston Celtics, collapsing over the final six minutes as Boston went on a 17-0 run to seize a 120-108 win. Poole may have had the roughest time, making just two of his seven shots including 1-for-5 behind the three-point arc. He struggled against a strong Celtics defense, committing four turnovers and turning in a team-low minus-19 in plus-minus over his 25 minutes.
Curry opened up on Poole’s struggles after the loss, offering a prediction that he will bounce back in Sunday’s Game 2.
The latest Warriors news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Warriors newsletter here!
Curry Shares Perspective
After Thursday’s loss, Curry said it was a difficult transition to the NBA Finals for the 22-year-old as he faced the most defensive-minded team that the Warriors have seen so far in the playoffs.
“It’s tough when you’re switching series to feel out how a team is going to guard him, and just making the right reads and slowing down a little bit,” Curry said, via The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami.
“What a steal [Jordan Poole] was, 28th pick.”
Klay says the Warriors wouldn’t be in the Finals without JP
But Curry also predicted that Poole would play better as the series goes on.
“It’s his first Finals game, and there’s a lot of adrenaline, a lot of nerves and all that,” Curry said. “But he’ll settle in, and we all will play better Game 2 and, like I said, respond. So we’ve done it before, and got a lot of confidence we can do it even based on how tonight went.”
Poole’s Important Role
Poole has been a big part of the Warriors run through the Western Conference to reach the NBA Finals, averaging 17.8 points, 4.4 assists and 3.1 rebounds through the first three rounds of the playoffs. But The Athletic’s Kawakami predicted that his role would be shrinking as Curry likely sees an increase in minutes against the Celtics.
“What the Warriors really need from Poole is about 20 good, focused, strong minutes,” Kawakami wrote. “Not 30, because this isn’t Denver, Memphis or Dallas anymore, and increasing Curry’s minutes can cover some of that. But Poole probably can’t be cut back to only 10 minutes per game, because that would leave Curry as the only playmaker for 80 percent of the game.”
Curry has already hinted that he could be seeing more minutes for the remainder of the series, or at least would welcome the change. He was on the floor for 38 minutes on Thursday, with a torrid start as he scored 21 points with an NBA Finals record six three-pointers in the first quarter.
The Warriors got this far by being mostly solid during Steph Curry’s regular breaks. But in the NBA Finals, coach Steve Kerr must do all he can to win. “Make the necessary adjustments,” Curry said. “It’s about winning four games by any means necessary.”
With his record-setting effort wasted in the Game 1 collapse, Curry said the team will need to make whatever changes necessary before Sunday’s Game 2 to avoid going back to Boston in a two-games-to-nothing hole.
“It’s about winning four games by any means necessary, and for 42 minutes, we did enough to win a game tonight, and that’s not how basketball works,” he said. “I think everything starts to come on the table when you look at trying to get ourselves back in the series on Sunday and taking it from there.”
READ NEXT: Draymond Green Says Warriors Rookie Can Become ‘Perennial All-Star’