Egos can be put to the side with one question among the superstars of Team USA Men’s Basketball: Who’s the group’s best shooter?
The answer is clearly one player whose full name can be condensed down to five letters. Like an American echo in an empty gym, all teammates will say “Steph,” as in Warriors legend Steph Curry. And the closer international 3-point line compared to the NBA has been seen as an advantage for someone who has continued to defy what shooting from long distance means.
But Curry has felt the adjustments of subtle differences between how the court is constructed while also using a much different ball.
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"For sure,” Curry said Thursday to reporters in Paris. “You talked about muscle memory and I know where I am in relation to the line on NBA courts and have a certain relation to that, a certain familiarity. It's a little bit different. Or has been, I should say. When you're toeing the line you might shoot a couple long, just because you're not used to it.”
How Curry clanked numerous 3-point attempts in Team USA’s final two tune-up games ahead of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics would have raised eyebrows if he were anybody else. Curry in Team USA’s one-point win against South Sudan took nine threes and made three. In their four-point win over Germany, Curry only connected on one of his seven tries from deep.
Falling short of 40 percent behind the 3-point line, even by the tiniest of margins, is an anomaly for Curry. In Team USA’s five exhibition games prior to the scores counting in Paris, Curry was a 37.8-percent 3-point shooter, going 14 of 36.
His teammates aren’t concerned about Curry ever going cold. Neither is his Warriors and Team USA head coach Steve Kerr.
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Asking Curry if he’s worried would be a waste of a breath.
"I think we're past that now having played five games already, practices and just getting used to the dimensions on the court,” Curry said. “End of the day, you try not to think about it at all. It's wherever you catch and shoot it, you got confidence to knock it down. I'm going into the competition with that mindset, for sure."
Team USA’s opening opponent should be a reason for optimism, too. Serbia, who Team USA will play Sunday morning to begin their Group Stage, was the only team the Americans blew out during their five-game Showcase series, despite having three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic at their disposal. A 26-point win, 105-79, was an outlier compared to Team USA’s four other exhibition games.
Facing Canada, Australia, South Sudan and Germany, Team USA had an average margin of victory by just over four points. Curry’s hot start against Serbia was a major factor in Team USA having a 14-point lead at halftime as their lead only grew in the second half.
Kerr called two screens set by LeBron James and Joel Embiid to free Curry for three in Team USA’s opening offensive possession against Serbia. Cash.
Curry in the first quarter shot four threes and made two. He then let two more fly in the second, and saw both sink through the nets, giving him 18 first-half points on 4 of 6 from three. The rest of his fellow starters – James, Embiid, Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday – had combined to score 11 points and missed both of their 3-point shots.
Serbia was on the wrong side of a Steph Show, digging a hole too deep to crawl out of.
“Everything is condensed,” Curry says. “That’s the only real pressure you feel is, including the exhibitions, it’s hopefully only an 11-game journey. You got to be able to adapt quickly. You got to be able to bring your egos as to who we are as individual players, but also let them go knowing it doesn’t matter who’s the man scoring on that particular night.”
A Curry flurry can make all the difference. In the four other exhibition games Team USA played, Curry shot 28.6 percent (4 of 14) from three in the first half, and never made multiple threes before halftime.
The perfect path to gold for Team USA is going 6-0. Even at 35 years old, now 36, Curry came out firing on all cylinders last season, averaging 30.8 points on 55-percent shooting and 46.5-percent 3-point shooting through the Warriors’ first six games.
Team USA shouldn’t need Curry to be a one-man show in his first Olympics to be world champions, though he can set the stage for what’s to come Sunday morning with Serbia again being the recipients of a scorching start for Steph in red, white and blue.