OAKLAND, Calif. _ Stephen Curry is shooting less. He is no longer his team's leading scorer. Coming off two straight NBA Most Valuable Player awards, Curry no longer has the ball in his hands every time his team needs a basket.
And the former star at Davidson and Charlotte (N.C.) Christian says he is fine with that. That's because the addition of All-Star forward Kevin Durant means that a second NBA championship for Curry _ the most accomplished athlete to grow up in Charlotte, as well as a soon-to-be free agent in the summer of 2017 _ has become all the more possible.
To see Curry truly in his element, you must go to Oracle Arena and watch him levitate the building. I did that Saturday night, watching Curry do his magic at a Golden State home game in Oakland and then getting an exclusive 10-minute interview with him afterward. We leaned on a wall in a back hallway to talk, unnoticed while Durant held court with the media elsewhere.
The Warriors had won, of course. Now 16-2, they boast a 12-game win streak. They are winning at roughly the same clip they did a season ago, when they set an NBA regular-season record with a 73-9 mark.
That season, of course, ended with the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, as LeBron James and Cleveland swept the final three games to win the series. Curry, 28 and in his eighth NBA season, said those devastating losses still affect him.
"It's something you'll never forget, just because it was so close and we didn't get the job done," Curry told me. "Does it haunt me? I would more say that it motivates me."
The Warriors went hard after Durant in free agency this offseason, believing his addition could give Golden State a third huge offensive weapon to team with Curry and Klay Thompson. The experiment has worked out beautifully.
"It's been a pretty natural transition," Curry said. "Early in the preseason, we had to find the flow, and just trying to figure out how the ball moves and whatnot. ... But with the unselfishness of everybody on our team, and obviously the talent, the ball has been hopping. We're getting everybody involved. It's been very, very unforced."
Said Golden State coach Steve Kerr when I asked him how much Curry has had to adjust his game to allow for another high-volume shooter in Durant: "He (Curry) spent most of the preseason sitting back and letting Kevin score and get acclimated and get comfortable. And then maybe the last preseason game or two, he really got aggressive again. But I don't think his game has changed a whole lot. He (Curry) came into the season realizing that we're going to play the same way, but he's probably going to take maybe a couple fewer shots per game and score a couple fewer points. That's about it."
Indeed, Curry is still averaging 26.6 points _ which is 3.5 less than when he averaged 30.1 last season during his MVP year. Durant averages 27.4 points and leads Golden State in scoring. Curry, widely thought to be the best pure shooter in NBA history, is also taking about 2.5 fewer shots per game.
"I'm maybe getting a few less touches a game," Curry said. "But when I don't have the ball, I can still help us. Same with him (Durant). When I don't have the ball or he doesn't have the ball, the attention that we garner wherever we go on the floor helps open up shots for everyone else."
