OAKLAND – Stephen Curry wants Warriors fans to relax. And be patient.
That despite the Warriors blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead in Cleveland on Christmas Day, he’s doing OK and expects to get better, right along with his teammates.
“We’re not going to overreact to what happened on Christmas Day,” Curry said after shootaround Wednesday. “But the overall concepts of how we’re going to be successful – whether teams try to get physical with us or they try to slow the game down or whatever. Whatever the situation may be, our strengths should overshadow that.
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“That’s how we’ve gotten to this point and how we’re going to keep getting better.”
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Curry’s play on Christmas Day was highly scrutinized because he finished with 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting – in a marquee game that was a rematch of the teams that played in the past two NBA Finals.
The Warriors continue to develop as a group, he said, indicating that sometimes there is slippage. That was the case against the Cavaliers, against whom Curry conceded after the game and again Wednesday that he was not sufficiently aggressive.
Golden State Warriors
“The good thing about it, up to this point, is we really don’t have much to worry about when it comes to everybody getting theirs and us having really potent offensive nights,” he said. “In situations like the Cleveland game – where everybody needs to be aggressive, and I wasn’t as aggressive as I need to be, putting pressure on their defense – those are learning experiences along the way.”
Yet the Warriors, at 27-5 as they prepare to face Toronto Wednesday night, own the best record in the league. They’ve gotten a boost from the addition of Kevin Durant. Klay Thompson has had his moments, and so has Draymond Green.
Curry, quite simply, has had fewer moments. He’s posting numbers that qualify as excellent but not as historically eye-popping as those put up last season, when he became the first unanimous MVP in league history.
“I know when I walk off the court whether I played well or not, whether I did what I was supposed to do to help my team win or not,” Curry said. “I didn’t do that in the Cleveland game, because I wasn’t as aggressive as I need to be.
“But for the most part this season, whether I scored 16 or whether I scored 40, I felt pretty confident with the way that I helped our team win. And I know what I can do to get better on those specific nights.
"So if this is a down year, and I’m doing what I’m doing right now, I’ll take that and keep pushing.”