BOSTON — After three NBA titles, after two MVP awards, after more than $250 million in career earnings, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry still heard some variation of the same criticism: You’re a bad defender.
Never mind that he has steadily improved on that end of the floor over the past several years. To prove how far he has come from his days being hidden on complementary shooters away from the action, Curry needed to make life difficult on high-scoring wings in the biggest moments.
Two games into these Finals, he has not just done that — he has proven to be one of the Warriors’ most important defenders. Curry’s basketball IQ, quick hands and added bulk make him a tricky matchup whenever the Celtics attack him in pick-and-rolls, which presents quite the conundrum: Who can Boston exploit defensively when Jordan Poole is on the bench?
The playoffs are all about sifting out any tactical advantage. Since the Warriors hastened the rise of switch-happy defenses eight years ago, offenses throughout the league have countered more and more by hunting mismatches.
Curry was long a go-to target on pick-and-rolls — not only because he was Golden State’s weakest defender, but because teams could tire him out and affect his offense. Now that Curry is solid defensively, opposing coaches often struggle to find easy looks when Poole isn’t on the floor.
“Teams used to try to call Steph into every action, and just try to pick on him, but that doesn’t work anymore,” forward Draymond Green said. “He’s able to hold his ground, so you’re not able to bump him off his spot, and that’s been huge for us. I’m not shocked he’s playing that type of defense.”
In addition to Curry, the Warriors’ starting lineup features an elite perimeter defender (Andrew Wiggins), one of the league’s best all-around stoppers (Green), a reliable positional defender (Kevon Looney) and a former All-Defensive-team selection trying to regain his old form after two serious injuries (Klay Thompson) Off the bench, Golden State boasts the relentless Gary Payton II and the savvy Otto Porter Jr.
With limited weaknesses to expose in the Warriors’ defense, the Celtics have been susceptible to offensive droughts. After Jayson Tatum hit a 3-pointer with 4:32 left in the third quarter of Game 2 on Sunday to cut Boston’s deficit to six, the Celtics looked overwhelmed as they committed turnovers, flung up ill-advised shots and landed on the wrong end of a 19-2 run.
Though Green was the driving force behind that dominant defensive stretch, Curry did his part by disrupting passing lanes, calling out reads and blanketing Tatum or Jaylen Brown on pick-and-rolls. At one point, Curry switched to Boston guard Derrick White, muscled through a screen, and stuck closely to White for long enough that the Celtics settled for a contested 3-point try from Marcus Smart at the end of the shot clock.
After center Al Horford grabbed the offensive rebound, Curry barely budged as the much-bigger Horford attempted to post him up. Unable to find an open shot, Horford tried to pass to teammate Grant Williams, only for Curry to steal the ball.
This was just one of several memorable defensive sequences from Curry during the Warriors’ third-quarter blitz, but it illustrated how formidable he has become on that end of the floor. Gone are the days of Curry getting bullied on the low block or making silly reads. Now one of the Warriors’ smartest and physically strongest playershe is seldom in the wrong place on the floor.
His understanding of angles and spacing has made him a reliable help-side defender. Instead of reaching in and drawing whistles, Curry has remained patient.
His 2 fouls per game in the regular season tied for the second fewest in his career. Given that his scoring commands so much attention, few might have noticed that Curry ranked second in the NBA in defensive win shares — a stat that measures how many projected wins a player adds with his defense.
“It’s always been a point of emphasis in terms of trying to win basketball games and do your job,” Curry said of defense. “Over the course of my career, it’s been a physical development that’s happened over time that obviously helps, a lot of work that’s gone into that.
“But at the end of the day, from my rookie year to now, it’s always been about effort and just a care factor, overcoming physical limitations with matchups or whatever it is. If you try hard, good things will happen.”
All that is true, but few could have predicted when Curry left Davidson that he would ever become a quality defender — or, for that matter, even an above-average one. Curry has said that he was awful on that side of the court early in his NBA career.
Slight-framed and not especially physical, he was relegated mainly to guarding spot-up shooters in the corner. When Curry asked then-Warriors head coach Mark Jackson in fall 2013 to let him defend his position, Jackson told Curry, “I appreciate your confidence, but you’re not ready.”
Curry’s defensive shortcomings became more glaring as the league trended toward switch-heavy defenses. Desperate to attack mismatches in the playoffs, opponents made him their go-to target on pick-and-rolls.
Since 2013-14, Curry has been targeted on 31.6 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions in the postseason — a far cry from the 4.1 pick-and-rolls he faced during the regular season. That spike of 27.5 from the regular season to playoffs is easily the highest difference of any NBA player.
Even as Curry made defensive strides in recent years, opponents continued to attack him on pick-and-rolls. The 42.4 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions he faced against Dallas in the last round were 6.1 more than any other player saw in the conference finals.
This was partly because the Mavericks wanted to wear down Curry, but it also might have been because they didn’t take him seriously as a defender. Defensive improvements can be tough to identify. And even though Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has gone out of his way numerous times to laud Curry’s defense, plenty of people still consider Curry poor on that end of the floor.
These Finals finally might be changing that narrative. On the biggest of stages, Curry hasn’t been just good defensively – he has been superb.
“He can guard 50 screen-and-rolls a game and run 50 screen-and-rolls a game,” Kerr said. “Not many people can do that.”
Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron