Stephen Curry on his Finals near-miss: 'I still haven’t gotten over Game 7'
A lot of things could have stuck in the back of the Golden State Warriors’ minds during their expectedly giddy July 4th party.
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Even with Kevin Durant having announced his decision to sign with the team on that particular holiday, coach Steve Kerr may have been left wondering if he’d grabbed enough ice bags to keep the kegs cold. General manager Bob Myers may have been eyeing the ceviche he made for his guests, wondering if it was starting to turn in the muggy summer air. Jerry West, sympathetic to the needs of the small cadre of vegetarians that were invited to the get-together, could have fretted about the paucity of meatless options beyond those tired grilled portabella mushroom caps.
Andre Iguodala wondered about staying too late, what with his dogs cooped up back in his house with the fireworks raging above. Draymond Green hoped that nobody was getting into the bottle that he stashed for himself in the freezer. And Stephen Curry?
He was probably thinking about the time the Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, prior to losing Game 7 and the league championship:
“I still haven’t gotten over Game 7.”
Curry admitted as much while talking with Sam Amick at USA Today:
“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.”
Though the Warriors’ glorious offseason would seem to take a bit of the edge off of losing three straight, along with a chance at back-to-back championships, Curry acknowledges that this is a pain that will last deep into the team’s attempt at a make-up move next June:
“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.”
The Warriors certainly had their excuses during the 2016 Finals.
Center Andrew Bogut was lost for the final two games of the series, and Curry himself was never the same following a sprained MCL suffered during the team’s first round pairing with the Houston Rockets in late April. This isn’t to take away from the work of the Cleveland Cavaliers – a championship team in full – but even with the Cavs’ glorious comeback win, Golden State’s loss has a good chance as going down as the one of the oddest aberrations in league history.
As the years move along, the gap between Golden State’s 73rd win in a regular season and Kevin Durant’s decision (82 days) will appear shorter and shorter. The Warriors loss and Cleveland win won’t be sloughed over in the same way that Magic Johnson’s Lakers were in 1981, when the defending champion squad (with Magic returning too soon from knee surgery) lost to a 40-win Houston team in the postseason, but a series of Curry/Durant-led championships could turn 2016 into a novelty of sorts.
That’s the on-paper guess, of course. Anyone silly enough to bet against LeBron James in a seven-game series does as much at their own peril. Though we should remind that the Warriors have taken a step forward (in acquiring Durant, even losing key rotation parts along the way) that former “up 3-1”-losers from the NBA’s past couldn’t dream of.
Stephen Curry and his Warriors should be thinking about Game 7 every day, at least in the days before training camp. Luckily for Golden State fans, this Warrior team was forged in the heat of the toughest few years in Western Conference history – the knowledge that it will take battle upon battle just to make it out of the first three rounds won’t have the Dubs pining for Cleveland in June when they should be worried about Portland in May.
That’s the hope, at least. Even with the league’s last two MVPs on the roster, the team will have to forget Game 7 for as long as it takes to focus on Games No. 1-through-No. 82, and however many it will take to make yet another Finals run. A singular focus in the summer is a good thing to have, but it will need to disappear completely once the ball goes up in autumn.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!