Steph Curry's return will fix Warriors' broken alliance with 3-pointer

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SAN FRANCISCO -- When Stephen Curry returns, whether it’s Thursday (anticipated) or Saturday (at the absolute latest), maybe the Warriors will have what they need to reacquaint themselves with a former friend.

Remember the 3-point arc, and how loyal it once was? Game after game, at least it seemed, the Warriors would reach out for help and it would be there providing comfort and warmth. The Warriors could lean on it, and there were many nights when it seemed to bend to their will.

Not this season. The darned thing has gotten ornery. Angry. After 10 years of building up trust, it has deserted them, lashing out and smacking down shooting percentages.

The first place to direct blame is toward Curry’s fractured left hand, which has sidelined him since last Oct. 30. Then turn it toward Klay Thompson’s torn left ACL, which has kept him off the court since the NBA Finals last June. How proficient, after all, can team be with its 3-ball when it is without the best deep-shooting backcourt in NBA history?

Certainly not great. Probably not good. But better than this, it would seem, even as they wait for the Curry half of that tandem to come back and light up defenses.

“He’s the type of player that single-handedly, he’s going to come and change the way everyone plays for the better,” Andrew Wiggins said Sunday night. “So, I’m excited. He’s a gamechanger.”

The Warriors, after a typical 32.1-percent performance from deep in a 124-110 loss to the Wizards on Sunday, rank 29th in the 30-team NBA for 3-point accuracy, at 33.4 percent, or a tick below the individual numbers of ex-Warrior Jacob Evans III, who was at 34.2 when he was traded to Minnesota last month.

The Warriors are 28th in the NBA 3-point makes per game, at 10.3. They’ve failed to reach the league average, 35.9 percent, in 37 of 61 games. They’ve been below 20 percent seven times, below 25 percent 12 times, below 30 percent 23 times.

The numbers are harsh and do not speak well of the team’s ability to hit the most important shot in today’s NBA. So, I asked Warriors coach Steve Kerr about it.

“It depends on what team you are talking about,” Kerr said. “We’ve had about three different ones this season. I think we will be a better three-point shooting team next year.”

Fair point. The Warriors traded their top 3-point shooter, Glenn Robinson III (40.0 percent), last month. They also traded their No. 2 3-baller, Omari Spellman (39.1); their No. 3, Alec Burks (37.5), their No. 4, D’Angelo Russell (37.4) and their No. 5, Evans.

Those left behind have not been able to pick up the slack. Damion Lee, whose path into the league was via the triple, has fallen from 39.7 percent last season to 35.6 this season. Rookie Jordan Poole, drafted largely because of his shooting ability, is a 27.0 percent. Draymond Green’s numbers continue to drop; he’s at 27.9 percent, a career low as a starter.

What makes those numbers even more lacerating is that the Warriors have not been able to keep opponents from feasting from deep. Opponents are plus-204 (830-626) on 3-point makes. Put another way, that’s a 612-point deficit, roughly 10 points per game.

This feels particularly acute after the Warriors have spent 10 consecutive seasons in the top-10 in 3-point makes and in the top-five in 3-point percentage. Those numbers, by the way, align with Curry’s arrival.

“The key in the NBA is you’ve got to generate offense and get the defense to react,” Kerr explained. “That’s how the openings happen. When you get the defense reacting and you get open looks on penetration and kicks, the ball tends to go in a lot more often. And we just haven’t been able to generate a lot of open shots.

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“(The poor percentage) is not a shock, given our youth. You’ll see guys shoot better when Steph returns. When he’s able to break down the defense, you’ll see a lot of open looks and, hopefully, we’ll shoot a better percentage.”

No doubt, Curry’s return makes the game easier for everyone. The attention he commands. The spacing he creates. He has, more than anyone else in the game, formed an alliance with the arc.

The Warriors have spent most of this season destroying that alliance. They need their guy to come back and use his special diplomacy to make the arc once again bend to their will.

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