After a great season opener, Steph Kerry has been experiencing a bad period in the last month. But tonight he exploded again with 40 points against Houston, including no less than 21 points in the final quarter. So what caused this explosion of Steph? It all started with trash talk and provocation by Kevin Porter Jr.. Junior teased Kerry in the third quarter and teased him, Steph for his part did not answer him and waited for the fourth quarter.
“It encourages and spurs him on,” Steve Kerr said of Porter Jr.’s provocation, “I hope more players will do it for him.” Contrary to his habit, Kerr did not take out Steph Kerry towards the end of the fourth quarter and let him flow and explode on the parquet.
Kerry himself also sounded amused by the situation and said: “It’s nice it happens during the game. This is not the first gap nor the last time it happens. It just brings me to a different level of competition. Sometimes you need a little boost in the game and he gave it to me.”
“People feel comfortable with what Steph is capable of doing,” Pargan Porter Jr. said, “it’s not surprising. But seeing him that way is definitely something to learn from.” And indeed there was something to learn from Casual, who scored 7 of the 10 shots he took in the fourth quarter, including 4 of 7 from outside the arc. Kerry broke his record for last quarter during a regular season. By the way, Steph scored 23 points in the final quarter for the last time in the Western Conference finals in 2019, even then the rival was Houston much stronger with James Harden and Chris Paul.
“We’ve seen Steph do it a million times,” said Steve Kerr, “it was meant to happen. It’s not surprising but fun to watch him release and give a game like that.” Kerry referred to the bad period that preceded this game and said, “Obviously, it’s no secret that the balls didn’t come in to me recently. I needed a quarter like that to rekindle my confidence.
Kerry, who was a top contender for the MVP thanks to his sweeping season opener, is currently only 10th on the league’s scoring list with just over 25 points per game. Until tonight’s game, he did not cross the 30-point mark and against Brooklyn in the previous game he was stopped at 19 on 27 percent from the field. Tonight he scored 56.5 percent.