Jeff Teague revisited the time he turned in the "best defense I've ever played"—and Stephen Curry still dropped 40 points.
"I wasn't trying to get embarrassed," Teague said on his Club 520 podcast at the 34:55 mark (above).
Teague was playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves at the time when his team faced the Golden State Warriors in Shanghai as part of the NBA's Global Games preseason series in 2017. "It's 100,000 people in the stands in China," the 35-year-old said. "So I'm like, 'Fuck that, [Steph] ain't about to kill me.' But I swear to you, I never played this hard."
"Thibs [Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeaux], after the game, came to me and said that's the best defense I've ever played," he remembered. "Steph Curry had 44. He hit every shot, bro. He hit every shot. I contested every one, bro."
According to ESPN, Curry scored 40 points on 13-for-20 shooting from the field and 6-for-9 from beyond the arc in a 142-110 victory. You can't blame Teague for inflating Steph's statline a little bit. When someone is on fire like Curry was in that game, it can feel like he knocked down every shot.
On the same Club 520 episode, Teague comically broke down his beef with one-season teammate Tracy McGrady, whom Jeff wanted to fight "so bad."
