Curry’s clutch 3 capped an amazing comeback
Over the next few weeks, NBC Sports Bay Area and 95.7 The Game (KGMZ-FM) will be re-airing several classic Warriors games on nights they were scheduled to play before the NBA suspended its season indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr spoke with Bay Area News Group about his memories from those games.
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Bent at the waist in front of the Warriors’ bench, Stephen Curry pumped both his fists and unleashed a roar.
Moments earlier, he had made a falling-down 3-pointer in the corner to erase a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit and send Game 3 of Golden State’s 2015 first-round series against the Pelicans to overtime. The Warriors would win, 123-119, and take a 3-0 series lead.
Curry’s clutch shot with 2.8 seconds left came after he made a 3-pointer with 11.8 seconds remaining that drew the game to one possession. Such performances led Curry, who finished with 40 points and nine assists, to his first MVP award and the Warriors to their first championship.
At 8 p.m. today, NBC Sports Bay Area will re-air that game. Kerr recently reflected on Curry’s heroics and how that series set the stage for Golden State’s dynastic run.
Q: That was your first playoff series as head coach. Having now been through so many postseason runs, how does that experience compare to the more recent ones?
A: “I think for us as a team, it was a really important series
just because we had never been through a playoff round together before and the Pelicans were really good as an eighth seed. To go against Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Ryan Anderson; they had weapons. And I thought that was an important series for our growth just to, you know, kind of get us prepared for what was next.
“That game was just incredible. I mean, I think that was one of Steph’s signature games. People may not remember the clutch 3 he hit before the last 3, just to get us within a bucket. I think he hit one off of a side-out-of-bounds play with maybe 10 seconds left. I think that cut it to one, and then after they made a couple free throws he hit another three. So, following that 20-point comeback and fourth, as I recall, Shaun Livingston played a big role in it, I think we went really small the whole four quarter with Andre (Iguodala), Draymond (Green), all the small-ball guys came up huge and then Steph did his thing. That was a really, really fun game.”
Q: How did you feel like your team grew after that series?
A: “Well, it was one step. The thing we were trying to get across to the team as a coaching staff was most most team in NBA history who win the championship, they have to go through some growing pains and we were trying to convince them that they had already been through some growing pains a couple years prior to that — losing to the Clippers and losing to the Spurs — and they already had some experience. So there was no reason why we had to look at that season as a stepping stone to a future title. We were trying to convince them that ‘Hey, this is now. We can do this right now.’ But when you haven’t done it yet, it’s easy to nod your head and say, ‘Yeah, let’s go do it,’ but it’s another thing to go do it.
“So I think we had to take everything step by step and that first round was a big step for us and then the next round against Memphis was probably the bigger one, being down on the road and all that.”
Q: For you, personally as a coach, did you approach that first playoff series with butterflies or anything? Do you remember your emotional state going into that being different at all?
A: “All I remember was our turnaround was really quick. It was actually too quick. We went from our last game of the season to we had the first game of the playoffs, it was a Saturday game at noon, and so we had very little prep time. And I remember Andre Iguodala talking about it after the fact that everything seemed very rushed. Our preparation seemed rushed, and it was.
“Because we were a young team and really our first time together with that particular group, everybody was nervous, and so getting the first one under our belt on that Saturday noon game with that early start was really important. It settled us down. Then I think after Game 2, we had several days to practice before we played Game 3 in New Orleans and we were able to kind of just settle down and go from there.”