Why Steph’s Warriors’ Burden, at 36, Is Heavier Than Ever originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors don’t want to be in this line with the regular folks of the NBA, who stand behind the velvet rope watching the league’s spark plug teams get waved through the VIP entrance. It’s humbling, especially for a franchise with glorious decoration.
The Warriors were once NBA royalty, the league’s most popular celebrities, living on the privileged side of velvet rope.
Here they are now, after finishing 10th in the Western Conference, waiting to take the generics assigned to the NBA Play-In tournament because only a thin layer separates them from outright mediocrity.
Because their roster is limited to one All-Star: Stephen Curry.
Are his shoulders, shaped by thousands of hours of strength training, strong enough to carry the Warriors through the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday and the rest of the play-in tournament? And ultimately to the exclusivity of the NBA playoffs?
“I think it’s pretty clear that it will be a disappointment,” Curry said Monday, “if we’re not in a playoff series and have a chance to compete at that level.”
That was also the case last season, when Curry not only led them to sixth place and an automatic playoff spot, but also put together a tour de force — 50 points, eight rebounds, six assists in 38 minutes — against the Kings in Game 7. of the first round to get the Warriors to the conference semifinals.
“He’s one of the greatest clutch players in the history of the league,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We know that.
“He led the league in player efficiency in minutes this year,” Kerr continued. “We’ve seen him win championships, win Finals MVP. I mean, Steph Curry is Steph Curry. So that performance didn’t surprise me. Because he’s that guy. He’s ‘him’, like [Los Angeles Lakers guard] said Austin Reaves. He was sublime in that match.”
Curry had played 134 playoff games in eight previous postseasons last April. He worked his way up to that epic game to push Golden State into another playoff series. He was 24 years old in his first playoff game, 35 last spring. He turned 36 last month.
With each year that an NBA star plays in his mid-30s, curiosity increases. How long can he be great? Or, in Curry’s case, how long can he remain the effective sun around which the Warriors revolve?
The cold truth is that it gets harder every year, especially when the two original members of Curry’s supporting cast — primary wingmen Draymond Green and Klay Thompson — don’t soar as high as years when they were perennial All-Stars.
The Warriors are relatively deep, but the elite talent is less elite than it was five years ago. So the burden for Curry to be great is heavier. He is better prepared than ever, but that only applies to himself.
“It’s a little bit more of a comfort zone to understand what that environment is like,” Curry said, reflecting on his postseason experiences. “When you’re 26, you’re just very restless and anxious. You live off that youthful energy. That gets you through, even if you don’t fully understand mentally how to perform at that level. You can get by a bit.
“For me 1713239595it ties into the strategy we’re trying to implement with the game plan, and understands what I need to do to get my body ready.
It should be understood that the flame of Curry’s competitive fire, whether on the basketball court or the golf course, is wide and high and never goes out. Don’t believe for a moment that the Golden State Conference semifinals loss to LeBron James and the Lakers last May isn’t stuck in his gut like a bag of nails.
And please believe that Curry is aware of the feat that James, three years older and his long-time rival and opponent, managed on the last day of the regular season to ensure that his Lakers would finish one game better than the Warriors in the rankings. James’ epic stat line in a win over the Pelicans on Sunday in New Orleans: 28 points, 17 assists, 11 rebounds, five steals.
Curry would like to make his own statement. Not to prove anything – he’s beyond that – but to remind everyone that he still has the goods.
“This year has been all up and down, and the playoffs are the best time of the year,” he said. “We just want a chance.
“Even if I’m sitting here 24 hours before the match [in Sacramento], I feel very comfortable and ready for the moment. That’s just because of all the repetitions you’ve had over the years.”
Curry knows what awaits him on Tuesday night. Being at the top of Sacramento’s scouting report means the usual double teams and a platoon of defensemen whose mission is not to let him take over the game.
That the Kings wouldn’t let Curry send them home for the second straight season with anything remotely resembling the 50-point bomb he dropped last April.
Victory puts the Warriors halfway through the door. All Curry and his teammates want is to win two in a row and prove they are worthy of admission.
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