3. Point Guard Battle: Kyrie Irving vs. Stephen Curry
Outside the Game 1 overtime thriller, albeit a loss for the Cavs, at Oracle Arena in the 2015 NBA Finals, All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving played only 43:37 the entire series after he was lost to a fractured left kneecap.
This year, we all hope to see a hard-fought battle between Irving and the NBA’s best shooter in back-to-back MVP point guard Stephen Curry. As far as the numbers go from the regular season, Curry’s are absolutely off the charts against Irving’s already-great statistics.
“You just try to make it tough as much as possible,” Irving said on Tuesday. “He’s going to get to certain spots on the floor. They do a great job of running some continuity plays that allow him to not stay stagnant at all. He’s going to come off a lot of pick and rolls, a lot of pin downs. It takes a total team effort to contain him as well as Klay [Thompson] and other guys.”
2015-16 Regular Season Per-Game Statistics:
| Player | Season | Age | G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Curry | 2015-16 | 27 | 79 | 34.2 | 10.2 | 20.2 | .504 | 5.1 | 11.2 | .454 | .908 | 5.4 | 6.7 | 2.1 | 30.1 |
| Kyrie Irving | 2015-16 | 23 | 53 | 31.5 | 7.4 | 16.6 | .448 | 1.6 | 4.9 | .321 | .885 | 3.0 | 4.7 | 1.1 | 19.6 |
However, during this year’s playoffs, one can easily make a case that Irving has been more efficient than Curry.
2015-16 Playoffs Per-Game Statistics:
| Player | Season | Age | G | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Curry | 2015-16 | 27 | 11 | 33.5 | 8.9 | 19.5 | .458 | 4.4 | 10.7 | .407 | .909 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 1.8 | 26.7 |
| Kyrie Irving | 2015-16 | 23 | 14 | 35.8 | 9.2 | 19.2 | .480 | 2.6 | 5.6 | .456 | .836 | 2.5 | 5.1 | 1.5 | 24.3 |
Grab some popcorn, because every second of this highly-anticipated position matchup should be worth watching.
“I always say what makes this league really great, especially the point-guard role, everyone is just so different in terms of what they offer to their team,” Irving said. “You have an MVP, two-time, and what he contributes every single night and what he means on the floor for them, you just have to have your antenna up even more. We had our antennas up on Lowry and DeRozan because they did the bulk of the scoring.”
Next: Keep up with the Warriors’ Perimeter Shooting
