Though Down, Stephen Curry Rediscovers Bounce in His Step, Warriors Find Hope

CLEVELAND — All Stephen Curry needed was an inch or two of space. That's all he ever needs. But the Cleveland Cavaliers would not cede it.

He shook off Matthew Dellavedova, only to find Iman Shumpert bursting into his path. When he lost Shumpert, he got Tristan Thompson instead—the height of the defender and the degree of difficulty growing with every step as Curry hunted for space along the top of the arc.

At the end of this jitterbugging journey, Curry at last confronted Timofey Mozgov—the biggest Cav of them all, at 7'1"—and launched a looping three-pointer over him as their legs collided. The ball swished as Curry tumbled to the floor; another magical moment in the ever-growing Curry canon.

The play was mesmerizing, dazzling, destined for the historical highlight reels.

As time was called, Curry walked to the bench, his head hanging. His team was still trailing by three, with 18.8 seconds to go. His late-night pyrotechnics, brilliant though they were, had arrived too late to save the Golden State Warriors from a 96-91 loss and a 2-1 deficit in the NBA Finals.

And now the reigning Most Valuable Player faces his greatest challenge to date: finding himself before he loses the championship.

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

The Curry who dominated the league all season, the one who wrecked defensive schemes and left opponents with whiplash, had largely gone missing, his beautiful jump shot doused by forces both seen and unseen, his gait slowed, his mood grim.

"I've just got to stay—I'll use the word vibrant—just kind of having fun out there," Curry said late Tuesday, searching for the right phrasing. "Because the team definitely feeds off my energy and the joy for the game."

The joy did return Tuesday, after an extended absence, though it proved too little and too late. Curry exploded for 24 second-half points, 17 in the fourth quarter, going 6-of-9 on three-pointers in the final two quarters, after scoring just three points in the first half. His five three-pointers in the fourth tied a Finals record for the most in a quarter.

The late explosion helped the Warriors erase most of a 20-point deficit to make the final minutes meaningful. Yet it wasn't Curry's scoring, but the flair that mattered most. In those final 24 minutes, with the game seemingly out of reach and nothing left to lose, Curry seemed looser again, joyous, vibrant, shooting from wherever and whenever, the way he always has.

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It was a Curry three-pointer that knocked the deficit below 20 in the third and restored some Warriors belief. Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala hit back-to-back threes in the fourth to keep the rally going. And then it was Curry again—receiving the ball, turning and firing in quick succession, hitting a three to cut the deficit to a point, 81-80, with 2:45 to play. As the shot swished, Curry bounced several times in place, buoyant once more.   

"I've never seen someone that can shoot the ball off the dribble like himself, ever," LeBron James said. "So he's always keeping you off-balance."

This was the Curry who seized the MVP race, who generated a thousand viral videos, who made fans swoon with every flick of the wrist, who fueled the greatest season in Warriors history. The Warriors are not the Warriors without Curry's uncanny scoring binges, and Curry is not Curry unless he's playing fast and loose and improvising like a jazz pianist.

"Steph never loses confidence," coach Steve Kerr said. "I just thought he lost a little energy and, I don't know, life. We just need life from everybody. We need emotion from everybody."

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Through the Warriors locker room and among team officials, there was a quiet confidence in the wake of this loss, a belief that this team still hasn't played to its potential in this series and that—as fierce and disciplined as the Cavaliers defense has been—the Warriors simply haven't played like themselves. They haven't played fast enough, loose enough.

And their concerns go beyond Curry.

Harrison Barnes has been punchless (0-of-8 in Game 3), while Draymond Green, the Warriors' multitasking star forward, has faded badly. After Game 2, Green disclosed to Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude that he has been dealing with back issues since a fall in the third quarter of Game 2. According to Gold-Onwude, Green said his back "is locked up at all times" and that any explosion, jumping and contact is causing pain.

On the positive side, David Lee—who had been dropped from the rotation—made a successful return Tuesday, with nine points, four rebounds and two assists in the fourth quarter. His pick-and-roll skills helped get Curry going as well, and Lee has surely earned a greater role in the series.

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For six straight quarters, from tipoff of Game 2 in Oakland through halftime here Tuesday, Curry was ordinary, or worse, making 6-of-29 field-goal attempts—3-of-19 from three-point range.

The Cavaliers credited Dellavedova for his stout defense, a claim that was dismissed by the Warriors and outright mocked by several seasoned NBA veterans watching this series closely. Yes, Dellavedova has been a pest, but there is nothing he's presented that Curry hasn't seen before. He's put better defenders in the blender for years, watching them crumple in despair as he flings 30-foot swishes over them.

Really, if there is one thing Curry has proved, time and again, it's that defense is irrelevant, all of it: scheme, style, persistence, proximity. He will dart in and out of traffic, dribble in circles, step up, step back, launch from strange angles and strange places and—bang!—the shot drops.

Until now. Some speculated that Curry hasn't been the same since his scary fall in Houston, in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Others cited the Cavaliers defense. Or maybe it was just the pressure of the moment.

Whatever it was, the fog began to clear late Tuesday, and the Warriors' disposition got a little more vibrant.

"We've got to have organized chaos, that's what it is," Warriors associate head coach Alvin Gentry told Bleacher Report, as he walked to the team bus. "We've been very successful. We're 80-20 now. So however we got to that point, that's the way we have to play. That's who we are."

Howard Beck covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is a co-host of NBA Sunday Tip, 9-11 a.m. ET on SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio. Follow him on Twitter, @HowardBeck.