"Oh you scared of buddy?": Iman Shumpert claims Stephen Curry was scared to guard Kyrie Irving in 2016 NBA Finals
Stephen Curry was the poster boy of the 2015-2016 NBA season after leading the Golden State Warriors to the greatest regular season record in NBA history, 73-9.
The Warriors were successful in the playoffs as well as they reached the NBA Finals and were up 3-1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. No team had ever lost the Finals after being up 3-1.
However, what happened next set a new precedent in the NBA. The Cavaliers, under the leadership of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, became the first team in NBA Finals history to win the series after being down 3-1.
A key Cavaliers player, Iman Shumpert, recently broke down how the Cavaliers were able to make the comeback. Shumpert claimed that the former unanimous MVP Stephen Curry was scared to guard Kyrie Irving and once the Cavaliers realized this, they started to feed Irving.
Here is what Shumpert said on the "All The Smoke" podcast:
"We realized Steph wasn't trying to match up with Kyrie. All we took it as, "Oh, you scared of this dude? You scared of buddy?" So, we just fed him."
Shumpert continued to break down how this affected the plays they ran on offense:
"If Steph came and guarded me, if they tried to do a triple switch. Whatever they tried to do. If I go down here and set this screen, Steph would try and go on me, while I'm in the corner. I would bring my screen up too. Now you got a double screen, but you finna have to guard Kyrie."
The Cavaliers forced Curry to guard Kyrie Irving which proved to be troublesome for the Warriors. As great as Curry is from beyond the arc, he struggled mightily against Irving on defense.
In Game 5 of the 2016 Finals, the Warriors had a chance to close out the series. However, Kyrie Irving dropped 41 points on Stephen Curry while shooting 70.8% from the floor and 71.4% from beyond the arc. In the next two games, Irving scored 23 and 26 points, respectively.
Perhaps, Irving's biggest shot of the series did not come until the last minutes of the Finals when he hit a 3-pointer against Stephen Curry that sent shockwaves across the basketball world.
It was perhaps one of the greatest, if not the greatest shot, in NBA Finals history given the magnitude of the game and the legacies that were on the line, including that of LeBron James.
Why did Tyronn Lue give Kyrie Irving the winning shot over LeBron James?
With the Finals on the line in an extremely tight Game 7, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue chose Kyrie Irving over LeBron James to take the winning shot.
Tyronn Lue recently explained this controversial decision to pick Kyrie Irving on the "All The Smoke" podcast:
“Bron had just made that big block, and he was exhausted. He hadn’t come out of the game the whole game, so he was done. We came to the bench, there was a minute and 13 left. Bron was there, he got the wet towel. So, I’m just looking like, Sh*t man, I’m going to Kyrie."
Lue continued:
“We come out of the timeout, I said, ‘JR you got to set a hard screen, make him and Kyrie you gotta fly off to force a switch.’ I didn’t think he was gonna take a three, I thought he was gonna go to the rack. He sized him up, step back to the right, that’s one of the biggest shots in NBA history.”
The winning shot came with roughly 55 seconds remaining in the game while the score was tied at 89-89. This shot was especially impressive at this stage of the game when points were really hard to come by.
Both teams were either missing their shots or making great defensive plays like the historic chase-down block by LeBron James on Andre Iguodala. Irving's shot felt like a dagger at the moment and effectively put an end to the game.
The shot was so big that it potentially even overshadowed LeBron James' triple-double performance in Game 7 as many fans argue that it was Irving who ultimately sealed the deal.