Ty Lawson has yet to play a game for the Rockets and he’s already feeding into their rivalry with the Warriors. Earlier this week, he told Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski that he felt Stephen Curry was coasting on the defensive end in last year’s playoffs, which he said was a contributing factor in Curry’s offensive performance in what ultimately ended up being a Warriors championship.
Curry begs to differ, via Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Stephen Curry's response to Ty Lawson's "chilling" on defense comments: "That's funny."
— Rusty Simmons (@JRustySimmons) October 3, 2015
The Warriors were clearly the more talented team than the Rockets last year, and it’s pretty likely that they would have won the title even if Curry had to work a little harder on defense with a quicker point guard like Lawson on the other side in one of the series. But it’s a fun thing to add to the rivalry, and you can bet that Curry will be motivated to prove something the first time the Rockets and Warriors play each other this season.