Hall of Famer Gary Payton Explains How Celtics Neutered Stephen Curry in Game 1 Win vs Warriors

The battle between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics was a ride of emotions. While the first half had both teams keeping their cool, the second half was wild. To everyone’s shock, the Celtics managed to somehow come out with a win. However, the biggest difference-maker in the game was Stephen Curry. He couldn’t replicate his stellar first half, which led to the Warriors’ offense going completely haywire. Gary Payton spoke with JJ Reddick and explained how Boston managed to stop the greatest shooter of all time.

Coming into the NBA finals, one thing was crystal clear to the Celtics: the Baby-Faced Assassin would be their biggest problem. Despite being the best defensive team in the league, Udoka and his men knew it would be hard to stop Steph. And it seemed like they had no answer in the first half as Curry went nuclear.

But after his incident with Marcus Smart, things turned around for Boston. His cold second half was one of the main reasons the Celtics were able to climb back into the game.

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Recently, Payton sat down with JJ Reddick and explained how the Celtics were able to add the pressure onto Curry.

The Glove weighs in on Stephen Curry’s cold second half in Warriors’ Game 1 loss

Payton is one of the best defenders to play the game of basketball. As one of the best on-ball defenders, he has all the tricks to stop a player from finding his rhythm. In addition, he was the last guard to win DPOY until Smart rewrote history. According to him, Steph’s altercation with Smart was the main reason he slowed down. Payton said allowing Curry to be free will always be a recipe for disaster, and the Celtics learned that in the first half.

He said: “Steph, you have to put your body on him. Did you see what Smart did last night? He got into him a little bit.” He continued, “When you let him be free, you see the first three quarters what he did. In the first half, he was just free free free, couldn’t nobody stop him. He was stepping back, shooting threes. Then when Smart got into him a little bit, it took away a lot of it because he was pressuring.”

“And then what it does is make the other people who got the basketball, they see that Steph is getting really really hounded. What do they do? They go away from him because they don’t want to turn the basketball over. They don’t want to give it to him. Then they try to do things they can’t. And that’s what happened.”

Payton’s assessment was spot on as Curry surely slowed down when Smart played intense defense on him. That’s the way the Celtics could stop Steph that night. In the first quarter, Curry had all the space in the world, and he hurt Boston big time.

Scoring 21 points, he was hot from the get-go. However, after taking away his space and freedom on the court, Steph couldn’t dominate in the same way. He scored just 13 points in the remaining 3 quarters. Likewise, the Celtics left the Warriors shocked in the fourth quarter, pulling off an incredible comeback.

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With the DPOY on Steph, it was always going to be a tough matchup. And now with some sort of plan to defend Curry, Smart is surely going to keep the pressure alive. Do you think Curry can tackle the Celtics’ defense and lead the Warriors?