Oakland, CA – Twelve months is a long time. A lot can happen. Memories fade, or the details get fuzzy.
That’s Steph Curry’s defence— which is different than his actual on-court defence, which has been much better this post-season than last. The details of last year, the minutiae of how his Golden State Warriors became the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 Finals lead, and how his own sub-par play was a huge factor in that, seem to have faded from his memory.
The fact that he was a non-factor in Games 5-7, the Warriors never-seen-before three-game losing streak? That his otherwise perfect MVP season ended with such a clang, not to mention the widespread belief that he was playing hurt, dragging a sore knee around?
Old news, man. Old news.
“This year’s a totally different year. I actually wasn’t thinking about that until you asked me,” Curry said Sunday when I asked him about the slide that began in Game 5 last year, and his role in it.
“I’m confident, I’m energetic and positive about the opportunity we have in front of us tomorrow,” he said. “The past is the past. It’s definitely fuelled us all year, just trying to keep that hunger to get back to the stage. But we understand we’re one win away from getting the job done, and we have a chance to write our own story this year, so this is going to be a fun night and (we) want to just keep a clear focus to what’s going on in the present.”
And the knee? How bad was it? How much better are you feeling this year than a year ago? Were you playing at 70 per cent? 80?
“That’s such a subjective [thing],” said Curry. “…I actually don’t even remember how I felt last year. It’s so long ago.”
A refresher: The Warriors had returned to Oakland from Cleveland with a 3-1 lead after splitting two games in Ohio. The plan was to end the series in Game 5 and celebrate on their home floor.
That the Warriors have returned to Oakland for Game 5 Monday night after splitting two games in Cleveland, planning to end the series in five games and celebrate on their home floor is a coincidence that pretty much no one on the planet is ignoring.
Things are different, but there are parallels.
A year ago their plans blew up in their face, in part because the Warriors’ Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5, in part because LeBron James and Kyrie Irving each scored 41 points, and in part because Curry wasn’t the same Curry who won his second-straight MVP award scoring 30.1 points per game and smashing his own NBA record by making 402 threes in the regular season, while shooting 50.4 per cent from the floor and 45.4 per cent from deep.
Curry’s line in Games 5-7 of last year’s Finals?
“Just” 24 points on 36.7 per cent shooting (35.7 from three) along with four turnovers per game.
The Cavs have tried to attack and defend Curry the same way this series as they did a year ago, except it largely hasn’t worked.
Kevin Durant is quite rightly getting most of the early Finals MVP buzz, averaging a beastly 34.3 points per game on 52.3 per cent shooting (43.3 from three) while grabbing eight rebounds, passing for 5.5 assists and making two blocks per game.
It is hard to imagine anyone playing much better.
But after a regular season in which his performance dipped ever-so-slightly from his MVP years, Curry has had a magnificent playoffs himself. Adjusted for minutes played, Curry’s 28.5 points, 6.4 rebounds game and 6.7 assists per game are the best numbers he’s put up in the Warriors’ three runs to the Finals.
But here’s the issue: In Game 4 with a chance to close the Cavaliers out on the road, win his second NBA title and preserve the Warriors undefeated playoff run, Curry faltered for the first time this post-season. Afterwards he said his miserable outing— 14 points on just 13 shots and four turnovers— “Was just one of those nights.”
And he’s probably, almost certainly, correct.
But everything gets put under a microscope in the Finals and if Curry and the Warriors are tired of being asked about last year’s choke job before Game 5, imagine how sick of it they’ll be if they’re heading back to Cleveland for Game 6?
All that said, the Warriors are in a different situation this time around. Last year they were down Draymond Green due to his suspension and they didn’t have Durant because the seas hadn’t yet parted in free agency.
They are most definitely favoured Monday and to hear Green tell it, they will be a hungry group after getting strafed for 137 points and 24 threes by the Cavs in a record-setting offensive explosion on Friday.
“I expect us to come out guns blazing. You get punched in the face, you want to respond,” said Green. “We know what it takes to win a championship. We know what we have to do in order to win this game. I expect us to come out with a level of focus that we have had this entire series, minus Game 4. I don’t think we came out with the focus level and intensity level that it takes to close out. I expect that [Monday].”
But Curry will need to be at his best, if only to shed any lingering questions about his ability to thrive when the stakes are highest.
Certainly the Cavs are still trying to make life difficult for him.
“I think when I have the ball in my hands, I just got to be a little bit more aggressive than I was in Game 4,” Curry said. “I just try to get in the paint, make plays, and not let them try to take me out of it.”
He’ll be facing double teams for that precise reason. The less engaged Curry is in trying to score, the better the Cavs like their chances.
Curry’s played three near-flawless games in the Finals and one dud. If he can improve that ratio in Game 5 there’s almost no doubt the Warriors will be champions for the second time in three years and will be well-positioned to win a couple more.
But if Curry and the Warriors falter again, the memories of his slide— and the Warriors implosion— will only become more vivid for him and all concerned.