Despite what seems to be superhuman abilities it's hard to realize, but the NBA stars that we look up and admire are also humans just as we are. NBA superstars are more than capable of performing incredible acts of athleticism and accuracy, knocking down three point shots at ridiculous rates and soaring through the air and making slam dunks look like second nature, however, despite all this, their body can still suffer from fatigue. Resting the body is crucial for even the fittest athletes such as Russell Westbrook and Lebron James.
The playoffs is where fatigue starts to show
These instances can occur very often in the playoffs, as when the association's most talented players carry the burden of their teams even more, and along with this is the increasements of playing time, tiredness can impact these players performances during the last stretch of the game. These instances of fatigue are most noticeable in the final quarter of the game, as due to players having tired legs they will miss more jump shots and be less willing to drive it to the basket which as a result equals less exciting basketball.
Some teams in the league allow their star players to rest when team doctors recommended it, while other teams push their franchise players to the limit as long as they are healthy.
And this is we are going to find the differences of how fatigue affects performance late in the game by analyzing the performance of some of the best players in the league playing greater than 35 minutes on average and posting a high rate of usage.
For Steph Curry, this is not the case
Stephen Curry is one of these players that certainly have not been bothered by the increased intensity of the playoffs.
Curry has gone to the free-throw line a total of eight times in the fourth quarter throughout the Golden State Warriors' first-round playoff matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers and calmly made all eight of his attempts. Only two other Warriors have been perfect from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, and they are David West and James Michael McAdoo who have combined for a perfect 4 of 4 from the charity stripe.
Stephen Curry has seemingly not been affected by fatigue at all. If you look at the facts, Curry has gone from all-star to superstar when the last quarter begins. In the first three games of the Warriors' first-round playoff series which all ended in Warriors' wins Curry per 36 minutes averaged an astounding 43.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 12.7 assists in the fourth quarter while shooting 42.9 percent overall and 50 percent from the three point line.
However, these stats are taken with a grain of salt for multiple reasons. Firstly Steph Curry only played a total of 12 fourth-quarter minutes against the Portland Trail Blazers, as the Warriors' victories over the Trail Blazers have been nothings short of dominating.
Despite the small sample numbers, there is no evidence against Stephen Curry's performance declining as long as he is fully fit as shown by his fourth quarter performances over the past two years.
Secondly, the efforts of Stephen Curry have only been accommodated by Kevin Durant for only a total of seven fourth quarter minutes in their series against the Trail Blazers. With Durant on the floor, Curry will have less defensive plans purely focused towards him and had less of a burden to carry with his MVP teammate back and ready to dominate.
