OAKLAND – True confession time: I missed the live version of the latest Steph Curry flurry.
Midway through the third quarter, when the "what-did-he-do-now?" wunderkind went off for 15 points in the span of 118 seconds as his Golden State Warriors cruised to a 118-91 win in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, this veteran NBA reporter made a rookie mistake, taking a trip to the restroom at the worst possible time.
Alas, there was a viable backup plan.
Just as he buried that first three on the left wing, coming off of an Andrew Bogut screen, the big screen television inside this Oracle Arena tunnel served as a window into the Warriors world inside. Except for one thing: there was a delay on the feed, meaning the roar of this relieved crowd came long before the actual play itself unfolded in digital form.
With every shot, there was a reason to rush back to the screen rather than miss a moment while getting back to press row. The Kevin Durant foul on the right side 3-point attempt, when his technical foul marked the beginning of their end and led to four free made free throws; that deep left wing three that was just filthy, Curry turning his head while the ball was still in the air to shoot Serge Ibaka a steely look; the transition jumper where his foot was barely over the top-of-the-arc line; the left wing three, when Draymond Green fended Durant off and Steven Adams didn’t get there in time.
That, in a nutshell, is the Curry experience. Blink at your own risk. You just might miss something you’ve never seen before.
“Steph is going to Steph, alright?” Warriors center Festus Ezeli said so perfectly afterward. “He’s going to Steph.”
It was Stephen unbelievable.
“It's all about our ball movement,” said Curry, who finished with 28 points in 30 minutes. “And the way that they've been defending, you know, it's hard to kind of get a rhythm if you don't move the ball and don't play with aggression and decisiveness, and I think we were able to do that.
“We set great screens. We moved the ball from side to side. When I get open shots, that's the game plan, obviously, I'm going to have to make them. But we didn't have to force anything, so that was our brand of basketball.”
And that, more than anything, is why the Warriors avoided what could have been a disastrous affair.
History isn’t kind to teams that go down 2-0 in a seven-game playoff series (243 of 260 went on to lose), let alone teams that go down 2-0 at home (17 of 20 lost, including all nine teams that did so in the conference finals).
This wasn’t a case of Curry carrying the Warriors, as they had seven players score in double figures, had 26 assists to the Thunder’s 22 and dominated the glass (45-36) in ways that simply didn’t happen in Game 1 (52-44 Thunder). The coming days will determine the seriousness of that right balloon on Curry’s right elbow, as he tumbled into the stands during the first half and came out with a swollen shooting limb.
On this night, though, Curry was the one reminding the masses why these Warriors will be so tough to take out. This is why the right ankle and knee injuries that Curry dealt with in the first two rounds loomed so large, the largest of X-factors in the Warriors’ prospects of defending their 2015 title. He is their everything, the guy that makes them special in ways that help you get past a team like the Thunder that is fully capable of winning it all.
“Business as usual,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Curry. “This is what he does.”
