Arguably the greatest shooter the game has ever seen, Curry has had so much success making shots that seem to come from the imagination of kids playing by themselves in the backyard, or on a playground, that the Warriors have learned to embrace whenever he flicks his right wrist. But the final numbers from the game were so dumbfounding and brutal - 5 for 23 from the field, a Finals record 13 missed three-pointers - that Curry was quick to dismiss the dreadful performance as a one-game fluke.
"I doubt this will happen again," he said. "Shots I normally make I knew as soon as they left my hand that they were off. That doesn't usually happen. Mechanically, I don't know if there is an explanation for it. Just didn't have a rhythm and didn't find one the whole game. I'm not going to let one game kind of alter my confidence. I know as a team we're not going to let one game alter our belief that we're going to win the series."
The concern for Golden State, however, is if Curry has actually fallen into an untimely funk that goes back to his ugly fall in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in Houston. Curry hit his head on the hardwood but also hurt his shooting elbow on that gruesome crash landing. After a seven-day break before the start of the Finals, Curry scored a game-high 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting to lead the Warriors to an overtime win in Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. But in the other three games since the injury, Curry is shooting 19 for 62 from the field and 11 for 49 from three-point range.
"We have all the confidence in the world in Steph," said Klay Thompson, who scored a team-high 34 points to keep the Warriors hanging around despite Curry's woes. "We know he's going to bounce back with a great night, a few great nights. Without him, we wouldn't have been in the game there at the end. So this is on no one's shoulders. It's a collective effort. It's a team sport, and obviously it really stings right now, but we've been in this situation before and we're not going to let it deflate us."
Before completing his pre-game warmup on Monday NZT, Curry made a nearly 40-foot shot from the tunnel leading to the locker room. But he should've saved some of that luck for overtime, when he went 0-for-4, had a pass go through his legs and committed two turnovers, including a terrible pass on the final frenzied sequence, when the stage seemed to be set for one of his heroic, game-winning threes.
LeBron James is always expected to be great, but hasn't been expected to win this series, especially after losing Kyrie Irving in Game 1 and not having Kevin Love since the first round. Any win enhances his legacy and if he somehow wills the Cavaliers to a title, James enters a legendary stratosphere occupied by few, if any. James's spike of the basketball after the horn sounded on Monday - the one that possibly hit the fixtures on the roof at Oracle Arena - was an expression of his gratification with a stunning victory that sent this series back to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland tied at 1-1.
On the other end of that spectrum is Curry, whose team supposedly has a clear path to the Larry O'Brien trophy against the undermanned Cavaliers and has to win or risk becoming the biggest notch on James's championship belt, a footnote etched near the top of his Hall of Fame résumé. James attempted to deflect for Curry last weekend, when asked last week about the pressures that come with being an MVP and a face of the league.
"I don't think there's much pressure on him at all," James said. "I think he's had an unbelievable season. Got the MVP, rightfully so. Led his team all year long."
James faces a different type of pressure because his talents warrant a non-stop debate about his rank among the all-time greats, but he was relaxed and jovial after winning the first Finals game in franchise history in his second trip with the Cavaliers. The pressure shifted the moment Irving went down. Now Curry must adjust after missing all eight of his field goal attempts - including all five three-pointers - and committed four turnovers when guarded by Irving's replacement, Matthew Dellavedova. Now Curry must respond in MVP fashion. Now Curry must complete a task that James already knows is more difficult than it appears.
"My first Finals appearance and my first Finals loss, so it's definitely tough," Curry said.
"Dealing with the emotions of it and the highs and lows of this game, you try to leave it on the floor because it's a long series and you know we can come back Game 3 and really take control of the series right back. But it's frustrating because we're at home. We're supposed to win."
The Warriors are still supposed to win, a position with which Curry is still growing accustomed.
- WASHINGTON POST
