Anyone who saw Stephen Curry during the regular season, when he won his second straight MVP (and did so unanimously), and during the last month of the playoffs knew that he wasn’t 100 percent. That’s not to offer an excuse — remember, the Cavs didn’t have Kyrie Irving for all but one game during the 2015 Finals — but it was the sad reality for the Warriors and their franchise guard. Curry says he still hasn’t gotten over Game 7, and discussed that and more with Sam Amick of USA Today:
From here until the end of his Hall of Fame-bound career, the piece of film that likely will haunt him most is the NBA Finals Game 7 loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Say what you will about all of the factors that weren’t in their favor — Curry’s right knee injury that slowed him until the end, the Andrew Bogut absence in the last two games because of a knee injury, the Draymond Green suspension in Game 5 that led to a series-turning loss — the championship was theirs for the taking again.
The fact that Curry missed 13 of 19 shots, including 10 of 14 from three-point range, when it mattered most only made the offseason worse. He finished with 17 points, two assists and four turnovers in the finale.
“I still haven’t gotten over Game 7,” Curry told USA TODAY Sports during a break in the shoot. “That’s something that will stay with me pretty much forever, for good and bad reasons. Obviously you hated the feeling, but it’s also a motivator to come back even stronger and try not to have that feeling again.
“I’m at that point now where I can try to fuel any kind of terrible nightmares or thoughts about Game 7 into motivation for how I’m going to prepare myself for this year.”
And therein lies the saving grace for Curry and the new-look Warriors: they’ll be the cause of night terrors for the rest of the NBA soon enough.
If there were a cure for this kind of hoops hangover, the arrival of Kevin Durant should have been it. Less than two weeks after the Game 7 loss, not long after Curry and a band of other Warriors players, coaches and executives recruited the former Oklahoma City Thunder star in a Hamptons mansion, the Warriors got the word that the biggest fish in the free agency was coming their way. But Curry’s recovery was far too complicated for that to be the quick fix.
Those first few days were the roughest of them all, he admits, especially for someone who has always taken such pride in not letting his work life affect him at home. The Cavs had made history at Oracle Arena, becoming the first team in league history to recover from a 3-1 Finals deficit to win it all while winning two of the final three games on the road. LeBron James, who many believed had lost his unofficial title as the game’s best player to Curry before he re-seized that status, had celebrated in their halls as if he owned the place.
Even the smiles of Curry’s two young daughters, Riley and Ryan, and the support of his wife, Ayesha, couldn’t soothe that initial sting. Ditto for the golf outings with President Obama, the late-night talk-show appearances and the annual trip to China with Under Armour that were to come.
“Starting with that night (of Game 7), it kind of was like a surreal feeling at home, kind of like, ‘What just happened?’ because we were so confident we could get it done,” Curry said. “Human nature kind of took in, where I was a little down — kind of naturally. But I was able to kind of just get away, go on vacation with the family (in Hawaii), get in front of the next generation at a couple (basketball) camps, still be around the game but not be depressed at all and understand we’re playing for the Finals and hopefully get another chance at it next year.”
In a way, it’s apropos that the Warriors lost the what-if way. A year before, it was the Cavs who were left with questions regarding injuries: What if Kyrie Irving hadn’t broken his kneecap in Game 1, or if Kevin Love’s dislocated shoulder hadn’t ended his season in the first round against the Boston Celtics? This time, it was the Warriors’ turn to wonder what might have been.
Brandon Payne, Curry’s personal trainer who is based in his hometown of Charlotte but trains with him in the San Francisco Bay Area, had a front-row seat.
“The first day I saw him after (Game 7), we both just had a moment of, ‘Well that really sucked,’ ” Payne said. “But after that, we haven’t really talked about it. We just moved forward.
“It’s one of those things where we know it happened, right? We don’t have to (watch the tape). We know what happened, and we have a pretty good handle on why it happened. We’ll just focus on getting him ready for 82 games (next season).”
But not before Curry would rest in a way that spoke volumes about his health.
