Golden State Warriors

Is Carmelo's plan to stop Curry insane or totally brilliant?

Published Feb. 1, 2016 2:14 a.m. ET

foxsports

There is no strategy to slow down the Golden State Warriors and reigning MVP Steph Curry. There's no hope for containment. There's only annihilation.

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (sort of) used to know what this felt like when he was the sport's best scorer alive. He's seen various coverages, double and triple teams. But nobody ever palmed his head like a grapefruit. Yet that's exactly what Melo decided to do during Sunday night's game against Curry and the Warriors.

Check out this insane/brilliant strategy:

Golden State won the game, but New York held Curry to one of his worst outings of the season. The All-Star scored only 13 points on 17 shots. Maybe Melo's defense got in his head?

Steph Curry said scratch was from "some great defense." Nodded yes when asked if from Carmelo Anthony's hand pic.twitter.com/ptl0J2tTbU
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 1, 2016

It's entirely possible. The only question now is why didn't Anthony do the same thing to Klay Thompson, who finished with 34 points on 18 shots? The stiff-arm defense is obviously effective.