SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry’s latest spectacular performance began much earlier than it normally would have.
About two hours before Saturday night’s tipoff against the Nets, right after the team’s walkthrough, Curry stepped onto the court with assistant coach Bruce Fraser. His elaborate shooting regimen typically begins about 90 minutes before tipoff. This one began at least 30 minutes before that.
Five hours later, Curry willed the Warriors past the Nets by going 7-for-7 from the floor in the fourth quarter, dropping 16 points in 8:40 minutes of crunch time.
“Man, y’all don’t miss anything,” Curry joked when asked about the pregame workout change.
Global superstars, franchise icons, two-time MVPs, four-time champions and sport innovators rarely go unnoticed. There must be a reason for the change in schedule.
“Just wanted to change it up a little bit to get the mind and body ready to play,” Curry said. “Kind of mess around with tweaks every so often throughout the year. But just trying to get some space before the game, a little bit more time to get right. It paid off.”
It wasn’t only the media who recognized Curry’s shift. His teammates noticed, too.
“He changed his whole routine up,” rookie guard Brandin Podziemski said postgame. Just locked in and focused on just winning. Obviously that showed in his play tonight.”
Curry, like many elite athletes, is known to be extremely routine oriented. The change in his daily habit came at a possible inflection point in his and the Warriors’ season — and, perhaps, the Warriors dynasty he has cultivated.
In the past week, forward Draymond Green has been indefinitely suspended for his pattern of on-court violence. The Warriors held a team meeting before Thursday’s game in Los Angeles, Curry said, to clear the air and focus. They’d lost three straight games, and four of their last five.
Curry and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr both said the Green drama has been heavy for the two-time All-Star. Kerr used the words “emotionally spent” when describing Curry’s past few days. Against the Clippers after the team meeting, Curry scored just 17 points with a season-worst 29.4% field goal percentage.
“It’s been a lot of conversations, a lot of noise around us,” Curry said. “That (meeting) was important for us to kind of settle on where we were, what was going on. Everybody kind of said how they felt. The game of basketball presents a lot of challenges on the court. But the friendships that you have, the connections that you have — especially for a guy like Draymond, who we’ve been to war with for over a decade.”
Added Curry: “All that stuff does weigh on you, because you’re trying to figure it out, trying to support him. But also, it’s just basketball, but there’s a lot of stress that you carry to perform while you’re kind of managing all the emotions that were going on. Trying to just be in the right place for each other. It’s a lot, but every year presents a certain challenge. You’ve got to be mentally tough through it all.”
Perhaps creating more time between his warmup and game time allowed Curry to manage everything better. He prides himself on bouncing back from poor outings — however rare they might be — and played with a high intensity level against Brooklyn.
At one point, Curry motioned the “timeout” signal with his hands to the Brooklyn bench when coach Jacque Vaughn called a timeout — an animated moment for the point guard.
When the Warriors fumbled away an 18-point lead and inserted Curry back in for the last 8:40 of game time, Curry rose to the occasion like it was a playoff game. He scored 12 straight Warriors points, going 7-for-7 from the field in the fourth quarter.
Sixteen of Curry’s 37 points came in crunch time. Even as the Nets sent double teams at him, he was relentless. His biggest shot came when he passed out of a trap, relocated for a handoff toward the corner, then banked in a runner with three Nets defenders around him.
After Curry’s fourth quarter explosion put away the Nets for good, he balled his fists and screamed at a jubilant, sold-out Chase Center crowd. Curry is always competitive, but this felt different.
“We hadn’t won in a while, so it was nice to get over the hump, get to the finish line with a win,” Curry said.
If the heroic effort really did start with a different routine, Curry probably won’t want to break it.