Warriors deftly balance highs, lows

The Golden State Warriors are masters of the Art of the Chill, and that gives them an edge over their rivals in the quest for a championship.

The NBA playoffs are an emotional roller-coaster. For the fans, that’s exhilarating, but for the players it can be debilitating. So the players — with one notable exception — seek to avoid the thriller highs and the killer lows.

The ability to find that shelter from the storm is a skill that can be developed and honed. The Warriors’ core group of veteran stars have spent years mastering the art. This is their sixth trip to the Western Conference finals in the past eight seasons.

Maybe we can all learn life lessons in handling pressure by studying Team Chill.

It helps to have a steady hand at the wheel, and the Warriors have coach Steve Kerr, who earned his black belt in serenity as a player during five successful NBA title runs.

“A big part of handling the playoffs, as a player and as a coach, is handling the noise, handling the passion that’s out there,” Kerr said recently. “The NBA playoffs are such a grind that getting through it, if you go to the Finals, it’s literally two months where you play a game, there’s a bunch of noise, you’re waiting for the next game to start, you play again, there’s more noise.

“So you have to have the ability to focus and get away from that, whatever that means. I recommend to the players, don’t read anything (about the playoffs), don’t listen to anything. Watch a movie, read a book, go play golf, anything you can to just relieve some of the natural stress that comes with high-level competition, and keep away from all the stuff that’s out there, because it really doesn’t help you.”

Stephen Curry says he goes into every playoff game jacked up emotionally to “that 10 out of 10 level.” In between games, though?

“You can find ways to keep things normal outside the locker room and arena, try to keep life normal, so you can slow down that way,” Curry said during the opening-round series against Denver. “I was telling my wife yesterday, I’d forgotten how long the playoffs actually are. We haven’t even played five games yet and you’re thinking, ‘All the commotion, all the noise, in just this amount of time.’ ... You have to pace yourself in between games so you don’t wear yourself out mentally.” Curry has been known to sneak in a round or two of golf during the playoffs, and he’s got three busy kids.

“It’s spring break,” he said, “so there’s a lot of energy in the crib right now. That’s probably all I’ve got time for.”

The Warriors’ King of Chill has to be Klay Thompson. During the playoffs a few years ago, Thompson busted out of a slump by taking a dip in the ocean off Santa Monica, prompting Curry to note afterward, “The Pacific Ocean is undefeated.”

Since then Thompson has upped the ocean ante by buying a boat, a 37-footer he calls (among other names) “Splash Express.”

“Luckily I have the boat, and fishing,” Thompson said, “and being on the ocean is a great remedy for that (tension). (As are) doing other things besides basketball — reading a book, going for a walk. There’s more to life than the internet and NBA Twitter. You just gotta realize you can’t take work home with you all the time.”

Thompson likes to immerse himself in his basketball prep work, eating and sleeping well, all that corny stuff. Meditation is part of his routine, “even if it’s just five or 10 minutes a day. It’s really yard to quiet your mind; that’s a skill, that’s something you’ve got to practice for years, and I try to.”

On a recent off-day between games, Thompson went for a swim, then went to brunch, feeding off the excitement of fans with whom he interacted.

The boat, though, that’s his new go-to calmer-downer.

“Yeah,” Thompson said wistfully, “you feel so present, it’s so quiet out there, especially when you shut off the engines. You’ve just got the waves crashing or the wind blowing. It kind of resets you; you feel so small in the universe.”

Klay mentioned reading. Can he recommend a good chill book?

“Oh, man, my favorite book involves fishing. It’s called ‘Blue Water Hunters’ (actually “Last of the Blue Water Hunters” by Carlos Eyles), it’s incredible. It’s about a man named Carlos who makes a lot of crossings of (the) Catalina (Channel). What’s nice is it’s about a local island, just off Los Angeles. I love the ocean, so it just takes me to a beautiful place. And it’s an easy read, too.”

And now we come to Draymond Green, who, not surprisingly, is the anti-chill Warrior. When I asked Green what he does to get away from the noise and pressure of the playoffs, he got so worked up it seemed he might need a sedative.

“I don’t get away from it,” Green practically shouted. “I live there every day of the playoffs. After the playoffs, I’ll be exhausted, and emotionally and mentally drained, even more so than physically, because I don’t try to get away from it.

“I may take a day every blue moon in the playoffs, say, ‘All right, I gotta get away from it,’ but you gotta live this, you gotta

feel it, you gotta breathe it. You can’t get away from this. If you get away from this in the playoffs, you losing your mojo.”

Green took a breath and continued, practically pounding the podium.

“Everything you got has to go into this if you trying to win a championship . ... My family feels that, my friends feel that, everybody around me feel that. I don’t get away from it. What am I trying to get away from? A championship? (There are) enough guys (who) run away from that, I don’t need to join that group.

“So, nah, I live and breathe that stress every day, all day. I don’t go home right now after this (practice and media session) and feel like, ‘Oh, man, I’m free.’ Like, nah, I’m doing something to prepare for tomorrow, all day, ’til I go to bed. That’s how you have to win a championship. You gotta stay in it. If you can’t stay in it, you don’t deserve to win, you won’t win.”

So the craziness energizes you?

“One hundred percent.” Green said he realizes the entire basketball world is watching, including every other NBA player.

“There’s no better feeling than that, as a player. You know everybody watching you? You gotta embrace that. So for me, why would I want to step outside that? Once I step outside, we go back to Game 1 of the regular season, which is boring . ... So, nah, I embrace it, I love it, nothing like it.”

So, there you go: Lessons from the masters on how to chill — or stay hot. Remember, it’s not the destination, it’s the conveyance you use to get there — boat, book, golf cart or maybe the front car of the roller-coaster.