Warriors continue to underperform

OAKLAND, Calif. -- He's an unlikely bully, that Stephen Curry.

"He looks like he's 12," says his coach, Steve Kerr.

But here he is, strangling the NBA with his bare hands.

A title, 73 wins, 402 3-pointers, stratospheric favorable ratings among an adoring public, the top-selling jersey, the top-selling shoe. The young fan is enraptured, and the older fan reawakened to the wonders of basketball. Who knew it could be like this?

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Nobody can stop Steph, not two on the ball, not the agile big man on the switch, not a generation of retired curmudgeons who preceded him and insist he couldn't survive in the NBA cage match of yesteryear, and not the superstars of this era who define "valuable" differently and want order restored to a time not so long ago, when the dominant wing lorded his talents over the basketball world.


A month ago, it looks as if they've all ducked the bully, at least for the time being. As his teammates rush through the tunnel at the Moda Center in Portland to and from warmups, a hobbled Curry can be found loitering outside the locker room in sweatpants and flip-flops after laboring through a game of two-on-two against his assistant coaches hours before Game 3 tipoff. Then two nights later, the Game 4 explosion -- 40 points off the bench, 17 in overtime alone.

Across the country, LeBron James has mounted his own spring offensive, not so much against the middling Eastern Conference bracket -- which he has dispatched in 14 games over six weeks -- but against the weight of this strange upheaval. Where did this damn league lose its bearings?

Even the commissioner can hardly contain himself as he delivers his annual State of the League address before Game 1 of the Finals in Oakland. Adam Silver delivers a paean to Curry as he gushes about the transformation of the game: Steph is Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile. Steph has shattered "a psychological barrier" that has kept shooters from reaching Steph-like heights. Steph "changes the whole dynamic of our game. I tell you, it's just incredibly exciting." Curry might not have blown up the first basketball, but Silver spends nearly two minutes enumerating how the MVP has inflated the past million.

Then it's time for LeBron's tribute.

"I think what he from a physical standpoint is able to do, just his size, his strength, his speed, again, I think this is just a delight for basketball fans everywhere."

With that, the commissioner opens it up to questions.

LEBRON JAMES HAS a lot on his mind these days. He'd like an audience, not to see him perform or listen to him beef, but to help him think the game aloud.

"He's such a cerebral player," teammate Richard Jefferson says. "When he comes out of the game and sits down between us, he knows he can sit there and talk basketball, talk shop."

The Cavaliers said the ball, that ornery instrument, refused to go into the basket last night.

Playoff series are about parries. It should surprise no one if the Cavaliers roar back Sunday. They would do well, however, to pay heed. The attention on this much-hyped team revolves around the Warriors’ Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, and their disconcerting habit of shooting and floating back down court with their wrists curled, as though they’d just put a check in the mail.

Last night, however, it was the Warriors’ defense that devastated. Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green and Thompson have preternaturally sure and quick hands, repeatedly stripping Cavalier players of the ball. Even Curry, whom Green calls “the mouse in the house,” plays a scrappy defense.

What about that off shooting night for the stars? Curry, the loose-jointed hip cat, shrugged. The Cavs wanted to stop him and Thompson so they kept swinging the ball. “You take the defensive aggression,” Curry said, “and kind of work it against them.”

That was Zen enough to make Phil Jackson smile.

James eschews talk of the metaphysical. He is 31, with hundreds of thousands of miles on his odometer. He can feel mortality’s breath on his neck. “We’re not a team that loses our composure,” he said. “I'm looking forward to seeing the film session and seeing ways we can get better.”

It’s impossible not to admire his passion, just as it’s easy to see that this player and his fine team face a climb up an imposing cliff wall.

Anything could happen though