One of the marks of a true NBA superstar is that they almost always find a way to get their points. They could have a horrible shooting night, get into foul trouble or struggle with turnovers, but more often than not they’re going to finish with 20-25 points. So when you look through the box score and see a single-digit total for one of the greatest scorers of all time, it’s always worth a second glance.
On Sunday that was the case for Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who scored just three points in a 106-96 loss to the Houston Rockets. That is the fewest points Curry has scored in an NBA game in which he’s played at least 30 minutes.
The future Hall of Famer simply couldn’t get anything going against the suffocating Rockets defense, which held him to 1-for-10 shooting, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range. The one shot Curry made was from 37 feet just before the halftime buzzer.
Shutting down a superstar is always a team effort, but on Sunday the primary Curry assignment fell to sophomore sensation Amen Thompson, who was more than up to the challenge. He relentlessly chased Curry around screens while contesting his jumpers without fouling and pressuring his drives to the basket.
It was all the more impressive since Curry entered Sunday with point totals of 52, 37 and 36 in his last three games.
“Obviously [Curry had] been on a heater lately, and so we wanted to obviously pay him a little bit more attention,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said after the win. “When you got a special guy like Amen Thompson doing what he does, that’s the result.”
Rockets big man Alperen Sengun also sang the praises of Thompson, who helped hold MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 22 points on Friday, more than 10 below his season average.
“Amen wasn’t smiling all day. He was locked in. Couldn’t even talk to him. He was locked in,” Sengun said. “Last two games he’s locking the best players in the world … best players in the league. That’s impressive in just his second year. He’s putting names over there in the Defensive Player of the Year.”
Warriors forward Jimmy Butler, however, had a different take on how the Rockets were able to lock down Curry all night.
“I’ve never seen an individual get fouled more than he gets fouled,” Butler said of Curry. “To me, I think it’s astounding. It’s crazy to say, but he’s used to it. It’s been happening to him his whole career, and he’s found a way through it, around it, under it, whatever you want to call it. That’s tough.”
Getting physical with Curry, particularly off the ball, has been the playbook on defending him for pretty much his entire career. Ultimately it comes down to how the referees choose to officiate the game, and on Sunday the Rockets successfully walked the line between physicality and fouling, holding Curry to one of the worst offensive performances he’s ever endured.
