Curry makes all the difference, so his confidence is encouraging for Warriors
It feels like we just went over this.
You know that theWarriors — up 2- 0 in their playoff series after a blowout Game 1 win and a tougher-than-it-needed-tobe Game2 victory — need to take care of business in Game 3 to effectively end the series altogether, because no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3- 0 deficit.
And neither I nor anybody on the Warriors needs to remind you that a good start is critical to Game 3, because the home team’s crowd is going to be fired up and their opponent is going to be playing for their playoff lives from the second the game tips off.
Again, you know this because we went over it all in San Antonio two weeks ago. Just apply the formula for that series to the Warriors’ current series against the Pelicans — it’s pretty much the same.
I know history repeats itself, but that’s a fast turnaround.
There is one not-so-minor difference between the two scenarios, though. In this Game 3, the Warriors will have Stephen Curry in the starting lineup.
Curry, who returned to theWarriors’ lineup after five-plus weeks on the side-
line with a Grade 2 sprain of his left MCL, came off the bench in Game 2. Curry was worried about his conditioning, the blistering pace of the Pelicans, and the team’s good mojo coming out of a nearimpeccable Game 1, so he suggested coming off the bench to Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
“It worked,” Curry said Thursday after the Warriors’ practice. “That experiment is over.”
The Warriors were, unsurprisingly, a markedly better team when Curry was on the court in Game 2, and the expectation is that the same impact can be applied to Game 3 and beyond — Curry said that his knee has responded well to the stress of his return game and that he feels comfortable playing more than 30 minutes today.
But remember, Curry looked good and said plenty of fear assuaging things when he came back from a Grade 1 MCL sprain in his right knee for Game 4 of the Warriors’ second-round series in 2016 — he scored 40 points, with an NBA record 17 coming in overtime, to help the Warriors go up 3-1 in their series with the Blazers.
He looked good in his return game in 2018 as well.
It’s about if he can keep looking good in the days and weeks to come.
In 2016, he simply wasn’t the same player who won the MVP unanimously after he came back from injury. He didn’t have the same lift in his legs and his immense gravity — his ability to stretch de- fenses further than they want to go — was greatly diminished.
He was still Curry, but he wasn’t impossible anymore.
Curry’s Game 2 performance on Tuesday was encouraging. He knocked down a 30-footer and showed strong burst to the basket. But was that adrenaline or Curry being healthy? Will that ability still be there for Game 3? What about for the next series?
The difference between the two options is likely the difference between a championship or a disappointing season.
Professional athletes understand their bodies in ways us regular people can’t understand. They’re finely tuned and even the most minute of differences can be sensed. Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that Curry has perfect pitch when it comes to his body, and the star guard’s candid breakdown of his injury and the rehabilitation process and the state of his knee on Thursday should ease some anxiety.
Remember, Curry wanted to play in Game 1 of this series, but his request was shot down by Kerr, Warriors trainer Chelsea Lane, and, well, the organization as a whole.
At the time, Curry was, unsurprisingly, disappointed in that decision, but forcing him to wait three more days (and forcing in the right word there) has been a blessing for the Warriors and could prove to be the difference between Curry playing at a superstar level for the rest of the playoffs.
Curry sees the wisdom in that decision now, though.
“I could have played, probably, but not at the level that— I should put it this way, the three days that I had between Game 1 and Game 2, I noticed a significant difference in how my body felt,” Curry said. “It was a wise decision, I think … just for my own health … it definitely paid off to be patient with it. If it was up to me … I probably would have played and it would have been a dumb decision.” The difference? “Just a little bit of the edge — it was like a soreness type of feeling. It’s hard to explain, one that I was working out through, playing through — on Saturday, when Game 1 was, it felt like it wasn’t going to slow me down when I was out there on the floor, but Tuesday, there really wasn’t any of that to speak of,” Curry explained. “I think (the extra three days of rest) probably helped more so in my recovery from postgame. … I felt pretty good waking up Wednesday morning. It might not have been that way Sunday morning.”
It will take a few more strong games before Warriors fans can fully exhale and ignore Curry’s left knee — the memory of the 2016 playoffs looms too large — but Curry’s willingness to speak on the injury Thursday was a great sign that he isn’t concerned about its ramifications going forward.
If, deep down, Curry feels he needs some more rest though — if his comments Thursday were all an elaborate charade — he’d be well-served to start Friday’s game with a flurry of 3-pointers. After all, effectively ending the series in Game 3 would mean plenty of rest for that all-important knee next week.