Kings game analyst Kayte Christensen joins the “Dubs Talk” podcast to discuss the first-round playoff series against the Warriors, and how the atmosphere will be interesting with Golden State fans at Golden 1 Center.
If the Kings want to advance past the Warriors, keeping Steph Curry quiet should be atop the to-do list in their first-round NBA playoff series.
Kings guard Matthew Dellavedova likely won't play -- he's out indefinitely after having finger surgery last week -- but he'll certainly share his experience of guarding Curry during the 2015 NBA Finals, which J.R. Smith jokingly said nearly killed his former Cavaliers teammate.
"I love Delly to death, but Delly almost died guarding Steph Curry. No, literally almost died," Smith told JJ Redick and Tommy Alter on the latest episode of "The Old Man and The Three" podcast. "We have footage of this man in the ice tub, like, literally to his neck, trying to guard this man.
The Warriors star averaged 26.0 points, 6.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game in those Finals, which Golden State won in six games. Those averages dropped to 22.6 points, 3.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds in the 2016 NBA Finals, which Cleveland famously won in seven games after erasing a 3-1 series deficit.
Dellavedova didn't play much in the 2016 Finals, with 46 total minutes in six games, but Smith never will forget his effort in the previous year's series.
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"He tried. ... Just from watching that, Dellavedova is, by far, one of my greatest people, like, of all time," Smith said. "He literally gave everything he had, and there was no excuse.
"There wasn't like, 'Oh, he just had it going.' It was like, 'No.' It's like, 'Oh, I'm trying,' it wasn't none of that. He could barely talk after. That's how hard he was trying. That respect level, to me, it goes through the roof."
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Dellavedova won't be on the floor to guard Curry this time, so that task will fall to someone else on the Kings, starting Saturday night with Game 1 at Golden 1 Center.