{"id":20773,"date":"2016-06-02T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/healthy-at-last-curry-chases-second-title\/"},"modified":"2016-06-02T08:00:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T15:00:13","slug":"healthy-at-last-curry-chases-second-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/healthy-at-last-curry-chases-second-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy at last, Curry chases second title"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. <\/strong>\u2014 Fresh charcoal gray NBA Finals cap on backward and wearing a wide grin, Stephen Curry summed up his wild, up-and-down postseason so far and reminded everybody he\u2019s not close to done.<\/p>\n

The MVP\u2019s got his groove back, all right \u2014 looking healthy again after dealing with a troublesome ankle, right knee sprain that sidelined him and even a puffy elbow from an awkward dive into the stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re four wins away from our goal, and that\u2019s a pretty special accomplishment,\u201d Curry said Monday night after his Golden State Warriors wrapped up the Western Conference finals by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7.<\/p>\n

Curry is taking the 73-win Warriors back to the NBA Finals with a shot at a second straight championship, his plan from the get go.<\/p>\n

Golden State\u2019s ultimate goal of a repeat title has been in the works since Day 1, even if the Warriors\u2019 chances of digging out of a big hole against Oklahoma City looked dire just last week. His body beat up, Curry had no choice but to watch fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson and others carry the Warriors for much of this postseason run while he worked his way back.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his time again.<\/p>\n

Just as he did after the Warriors won Game 5 to stave off elimination, Curry chanted through Oracle Arena, \u201cWe ain\u2019t going home!\u201d as Golden State became just the 10th team to rally from a 3-1 deficit to win a postseason series with Monday night\u2019s 96-88 Game 7 victory.<\/p>\n

Curry and his teammates earned a day off Tuesday before preparations began in earnest Wednesday for a Finals rematch against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who lost last season\u2019s title to Golden State in six games. Game 1 is tonight at Oracle Arena.<\/p>\n

For Curry, there\u2019s just one more step to take to cap a remarkable, record-setting season.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old global superstar was the first unanimous MVP award in league history, while also becoming the first player not only to make 300 3-pointers in a season but also 400 \u2014 he finished with 402 \u2014 before a series of injuries slowed him when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

There was the injured ankle in the first-round Houston series, then he returned only to slip on a wet spot in Game 4 against the Rockets and sprained his right knee. He made a dive into the Oracle Arena stands against the Thunder and gave himself a puffy elbow, and for a few games Curry hardly looked comfortable with his typically breezy ballhandling and shoot-from-anywhere rhythm.<\/p>\n

Until he did again.<\/p>\n

His teammates have come to expect nothing less, even when Curry\u2019s body is hurting and speculation swirls about whether he is playing somewhere around 70 percent. He has learned to block out the chatter along the way, knowing that just comes with being the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really one thing that I admire about him. He\u2019s a person that\u2019s never going to change for anybody. He hasn\u2019t changed to try to prove anything,\u201d said 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala. \u201cHe just stayed true to himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry scored 36 points in the deciding game while making seven 3-pointers and dishing out eight assists. He wound up with 32 3s against the Thunder, the most ever in a seven-game postseason series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel joy, for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an unbelievable accomplishment, to go back to back to the Finals and continue this journey. So I\u2019m kind of just taking in the moment and enjoying it with my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for anybody still questioning his toughness, Coach of the Year Steve Kerr brushes such things aside with another timely joke: \u201cBecause he looks like he\u2019s 12.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s easy to forget how Curry led the Warriors to an NBA-record 24-0 start and a record 73-9 finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have an MVP, two-time, and what he contributes every single night and what he means on the floor for them, you just have to have your antenna up even more,\u201d Cleveland\u2019s Kyrie Irving said.<\/p>\n

Four more wins, that\u2019s all Curry cares about right now. However they come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing with Steph is he understands that with all these accolades, MVPs, commercials, with all that comes great responsibility to his team, to the organization, the fans. He gets that,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHe understands that if you play poorly, you\u2019re going to get blamed if you\u2019re the star. He\u2019s had a rough playoff go because of the injuries. I think he finally felt right physically the last couple games. And this is who he is. Having a clutch performance in a Game 7. That\u2019s Steph Curry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 Fresh charcoal gray NBA Finals cap on backward and wearing a wide grin, Stephen Curry summed up his wild, up-and-down postseason so far and reminded everybody he\u2019s not close to done. The MVP\u2019s got his groove back, all right \u2014 looking healthy again after dealing with a troublesome ankle, right knee sprain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":20774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20773"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}