“Could it be 2015 all over again?” - NBA analyst believes Steph Curry is under a lot of pressure after the emergence of 1x All-Star as a Finals MVP candidate
Steph Curry is one of the greatest players in NBA history. He is considered the greatest shooter of all time, and his legacy is already incredible.
Curry has won three NBA championships, yet he has no Finals MVP award. Despite his incredible playoff performances, the Golden State Warriors guard has never won the prestigious award.
Curry has been incredible in the 2022 NBA Finals. If it wasn't for him, the Boston Celtics may have even beaten the Warriors by now, so he deserves a lot of credit.
He has a chance to be named the Finals MVP, but the series is not over yet. Game 6 is Thursday night in Boston. Golden State holds a 3-2 series lead.
Will Steph Curry finally win a Finals MVP award?
In 2015, Andre Iguodala won the Finals MVP award, despite averaging almost 10 points fewer than Steph Curry. This was a rather surprising choice, but Iguodala played incredible basketball.
In 2017 and 2018, Kevin Durant was the best player on the Warriors. He was incredibly efficient from the field and did a little bit of everything to help Golden State win back-to-back championships.
It could finally be Curry's time to shine. Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins have been inconsistent and are not even close to winning MVP. Curry, on the other hand, has averaged 30.6 points per game.
Chris Broussard recently spoke about Curry's poor shooting performance in a 14-94 Game 5 win on Monday. He said that the point guard will have to play well in the next game to avoid the pressure.
.@Chris_Broussard has Jayson Tatum as No. 1 on his under duress list this week. "Even though Tatum's only 24, when I look at the East I see Giannis, Embiid, KD. There's no guarantee he'll get back to the Finals."
5. AD
4. Draymond
3. Brown
2. Steph
1. Tatum https://t.co/wEdHeK4J8U
"Steph is, right now, the clear-cut Finals MVP, but he's coming off a bad game. He didn't make a 3-pointer – 0-for-9 from 'trey.' So, he has to come out and play well. If they lose the game and he doesn't play well, now you're going back to Golden State with pressure on you to win Game 7. Everybody's looking at you because you struggled in the last two games."
Broussard mentioned Wiggins as a potential Finals MVP candidate. He brought up Wiggins' amazing Game 5 performance and said that he could win the award if he has another great performance and the Warriors clinch.
"If Steph doesn't play well tonight and they win, and Wiggins has another great game as he did in Game 5, could it be 2015 all over again?"
Could Wiggins be a threat to win Finals MVP?
Even Broussard doesn't think Wiggins will win the Finals MVP award. However, anything could happen in basketball. After all, many fans believed Curry would win the award in 2015, yet it was Iguodala who won it.
While Wiggins carried the Warriors in Game 5, he's been averaging 18.4 points per game in the series. His overall shooting has been decent as well (45.8%), but he's been horrible from 3-point range, converting only 25.0% of his shots.
After his dunk in Game 5 of the #NBAFinals, check out some of the best dunks of @22wiggins' career! https://t.co/LnC7WAM4BS
Wiggins leads the Warriors in minutes played (38.4 per game), rebounds (9.4) and blocks (1.2). He's also been great on the defensive end. However, he would probably need to score at least 40 points in Game 6 to even be considered a serious candidate for the Finals MVP award.