Stephen Curry won Game 7 by dropping 50 points on the Kings Sunday.
However, Curry may have won that game before ever stepping on the court — the usually-quiet Curry fired up the team with a speech before they ever went to Sacramento. Draymond Green talked about it on his podcast.
"I can't say I knew he was gonna come out and get 50... but I knew there was no way he was gonna allow us to lose that game"
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) May 1, 2023
—@Money23Green on the epic @StephenCurry30 speech before Game 7 pic.twitter.com/7sqcnljcBo
Here is Green paraphrasing Curry:
“Listen, we just got embarrassed last night. We got embarrassed on our home floor with an opportunity to close out a team, and we never showed up. If you’re getting on this bus, you’re making a commitment to this team. I don’t care how many minutes you play, I don’t care if you don’t play a single second, I don’t care if it’s points, rebounds, whatever it is, but if you’re getting on this bus, you are saying, ‘I am going to do whatever it takes as far as my preparation goes, to win this game.’ We’re not going out like that. We have an opportunity to play in Game 7 — they’re rare, they don’t come around. Take advantage of the moment. Embrace the moment.”
Green told it this way to Marcus Thompson II and Shams Charania of The Athletic.
It worked.
After an even first half, Curry and the Warriors pulled away in the third quarter and went on to a comfortable 20-point win. It was a game where poise and experience in big moments — things the Warriors are overflowing with — mattered. It was a game where Curry would not let his team lose.
And that started before they even boarded the bus.