Stephen Curry's Playoff Legend Continues to Grow with Finals Triple-Double
OAKLAND, Calif. — There was a sense coming into these NBA Finals—an in-progress rout of epic proportions after a 132-113 drubbing by the Golden State Warriors in Game 2—that last year's losers, reloaded and recharged, could subsist not just on an edge in talent but a wave of motivation born in the wake of that historic collapse last year.
Kevin Durant wasn't here, so that's not necessarily what's motivating the team. For him, it's about silencing the critics that have hounded him since he signed with the Warriors last July 4. In Game 1, he carried Golden State with 38 points and zero turnovers. He was just as unstoppable in the encore, scoring a game-high 33 points to go with 13 boards and six assists.
With two more games like this from Durant, the Warriors will likely sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers and cap off the first perfect 16-0 postseason in NBA history.
But Stephen Curry remembers the epic flameout of last June all too well. In a competitive but clearly diminished state, Curry was a reasonable facsimile of the athlete who was awarded the Most Valuable Player award in unprecedented unanimous fashion. When his team needed one shot versus Kevin Love to save its season, Curry couldn't deliver, and a long summer of regret (albeit one softened greatly by Durant's arrival) soon commenced.
That Curry no longer exists. He is healthy, more determined than ever and orchestrating this potent Warriors offense with a symphonic touch. With 32 points on just seven made shots, along with 11 assists and 10 rebounds, he recorded the first triple-double in franchise playoff history from someone not named Draymond Green. Curry is, without any doubt, playing the best high-stakes basketball of his career at this very moment.
"They're still going to make tough shots, they're still going to have some special plays and make runs and be a competitive team because they're a great team," Curry said. "So you got to just stick with the program, but there is another level that we can get to."
On whatever plane of existence that other level resides, Curry and Durant seem like they're already there. Golden State dropped the most points in a Finals game in 30 years, an impressive feat that not even the historically great Cavs offense could reach.
But with 65 points between Curry and Durant, as well as 22 from a revitalized Klay Thompson, head coach Steve Kerr was pleased with what he saw in his first game back on the bench since Game 2 of the opening-round series against Portland.
"[Curry] just generates so much force," Kerr said. "Even when he's not making shots, he's bringing defenders all the way out to the perimeter, which opens up so much."
The Warriors topped 51 percent shooting from the field—the seventh time in 14 playoff games they've shot that well—and made 42 percent of their threes. And in dishing out 34 assists on 46 made shots, Kerr's fluid motion offense looked as crisp and unguardable as ever.
Except when it didn't. After posting just four turnovers in Game 1, the Warriors committed 20 such mistakes, due in large part to the Cavs' tenacity. After recording no steals in the opener—the first Finals team to ever do so in a game—Cleveland picked off 15 passes.
Curry himself was responsible for eight miscues. It simply didn't matter on a night when the Warriors could score at will, but Kerr preached how they can't afford a repeat of such sloppiness at the Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday night for Game 3.
"We're going to have to be a lot smarter," Kerr warned. "We play that same game in Cleveland, there's no way we win."
That's where having a margin for error becomes so vital, and there is no greater advantage for the Warriors than having a point guard who can excel in all phases at an utterly elite level.
The highlight-reel moment came as the Warriors were about to kick off another of their trademark third-quarter runs. Ahead by eight, Curry dribbled in, on, over and eventually around LeBron James, who did everything he could to stop the shot. This time, Curry's best got the better of him.
"It was a momentum swing," Curry said. "Coach [Kerr] got on me at halftime about my body language and just trying to play with passion and play with joy. The turnovers kind of got underneath my skin a little bit and I was letting it affect my mannerisms too much. … And going into the timeout, you want to have some fun and enjoy that moment."
Curry has shown time and again how he can take over any given regular-season matchup. He's had many singular, spectacular moments in the playoffs.
But he's never been this good when it mattered so much.
As he said, he's even having fun and thriving in these marquee moments.
Curry didn't look like he was having any fun as the playoffs came to a close last year, but the Warriors—led by their longtime floor general—are intent on not letting history repeat itself.
Two more games like this from Curry and he'll have rewritten his own playoff history in full.
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