"He's capable of winning by himself if he wants to" - Dennis Schröder talks about being ready for Steph Curry
On Wednesday night, there will be a tantalizing matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the LA Lakers, with Steph Curry and LeBron James battling it out for the West's 7th seed.
Looking ahead to the fixture, some Lakers and Warriors personnel faced the league's media on Tuesday. That included Lakers point guard, Dennis Schröder, who will likely be tasked with stopping Steph Curry on the night. In his interview, he was asked about the prospect of facing Curry for this huge clash and was very respectful of the 33-year-old's greatness.
Kyle Kuzma also weighed in on how the LA Lakers are preparing to face Curry and co., stating that they had the appropriate level of fear but that they were locked in. They will certainly need to be at their defensive best on Wednesday, given Curry's breathtaking scoring this campaign.
What to expect as the LA Lakers attempt to lock down Steph Curry
The LA Lakers boasted the most efficient defense during the 2020-21 NBA season. This came despite losing their leaders LeBron James and Anthony Davis for considerable periods. They conceded the second-fewest points per game, allowed the third-fewest 3-point efforts and the fourth-lowest number of rebounds.
But all of that effort could go out the window in a one-off matchup against one of the greatest shooters the league has ever seen. Steph Curry finds a way to score on any of his opponents and helped the Golden State Warriors have a top-ten offense in the last 15 games of the season.
Curry secured the NBA's scoring title in his final game against the Memphis Grizzlies, in which he dropped a casual 46 points. His shooting has been outrageously good this season, even by his standards. During April, he shattered the previous record for threes in a month with 96 and had four games with ten or more made treys.
Against the LA Lakers this season, the Golden State Warriors won just once in three matchups, though that win did come at the Staples Center. In each of those games, Steph Curry averaged just 23 points - relatively little by his standards.
However, the last time these two sides faced off was over two months ago on the 15th of March. Since then, Curry's scoring has left analysts at a loss of words to describe his performances.
The LA Lakers would be foolish, therefore, to rule out a dominant display from Steph Curry.
We can expect their defense, like the Grizzlies' on Sunday, to be fully-focussed on quashing his threat. It appears LeBron James and the Lakers are prepared to do just that.
This week, 36-year-old LeBron James was full of respect and admiration for Curry, who he named as the worthy winner of the MVP award. The battle between the two will hopefully be one for the ages.
You can tune into the matchup at 10PM ET and 7:30AM IST. It will be shown nationally in America on ESPN and can also be streamed on the NBA League Pass.