Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had noticed it from the sideline, too. The Warriors weren't comfortable on offense. After thinking it over briefly, he realized why: Wang Yi had completely shut Curry down.
When they played other teams, those opponents had to assign two players to lock Curry down. That left the other Warriors with a four-on-three advantage, so even if it looked like Curry wasn't involved in the offense, they were still able to play comfortably.
But today was different.
Wang Yi had completely shut Curry down all by himself. That left the other players in a four-on-four, and those four Warriors were slightly outmatched by the Kings' four. As a result, the Warriors were struggling to play comfortably.
Once he understood the problem, Warriors head coach Kerr waved his arms on the sideline and shouted, "Stephen, go get the ball on the backcourt pass. The rest of you, set screens for him."
For the Warriors to play to their strengths, Curry at least had to get the ball.
And it wasn't as though Wang Yi could guard Curry all the way from the backcourt.
That would take a tremendous amount of energy, after all, and Wang Yi couldn't afford to waste too much of it on defense. He was the absolute core of the Kings' offense.
Curry understood what his coach meant. So when the Warriors inbounded from the backcourt, he went to get the ball. Green and Thompson set screens for him on either side, letting him receive the pass.
Then Green and Thompson jogged toward the frontcourt.
But to Kerr's surprise, the moment Curry got the ball, Wang Yi began guarding him tightly right there in the backcourt.
Wang Yi kept his long arms raised to smother Curry while using his chest to hold his position,