Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is held back from referee Jason Phillips (23) by Shaun Livingston, left, and Klay Thompson, right, while reacting to being called for his sixth foul on Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the second half of Game 6 of basketball’s NBA Finals in Cleveland, Thursday, June 16, 2016. AP
OAKLAND, United States — NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry says it could take the best game of his career for the Golden State Warriors to beat Cleveland in Sunday’s winner-take-all title showdown.
The Cavaliers have won the past two games after trailing 3-1 in the best-of-seven series to force a decisive seventh game at Oakland, where NBA scoring champion Curry has had some of his most magnificent games.
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“I need to play my best game of the year, if not my career, because of what the stakes are,” Curry said.
“That doesn’t mean scoring 50 points, though. That means controlling the tempo of the game. I need to be aggressive, but when I need to push the envelope, do it, but do it under control. Do it within the schemes that we’re used to as a team. Focus on details on both ends of the floor.
“All those things go into having a great game, and I need to do that.”
Curry says it is vital that he individually has a great performance in game seven as well as working within the Warriors’ deep team schemes offensively and defensively.
“Four out of the six games I’ve played pretty well to my expectations, my standards, so I need to take it up another notch for game seven.
“That’s what the greats do.”
Either the Cavaliers will complete the greatest comeback in NBA history — no team has ever rallied from 3-1 down to win the finals — and the Warriors will suffer the greatest choke in finals history or the Warriors will cap a campaign that included a record 73 regular-season wins from 82 games with a crown and hand LeBron James his fifth loss in seven NBA Finals appearances, including his third defeat in a row.
Curry made it clear the Warriors’ historic season, the most successful in NBA history with 88 combined season and playoff triumphs, will be a failure if it does not end with a championship celebration Sunday.
“Yeah, pretty much because that was our goal from the beginning,” Curry said. “We’re here on game seven with a chance to do it. We’ve had two chances already and haven’t gotten it done — 48 minutes to do it.
“So if we come up short, we’ll all be very, very disappointed. No two ways around that.”
Curry said that he was happy with the mental attitude of his teammates after their game-six loss Thursday in Cleveland.
“Everybody is kind of encouraging each other, understanding the opportunity that we have in front of us,” Curry said. “The plane ride back yesterday was fun because we were very light. The attitude was really positive. So I like where we’re at mentally and that needs to kind of transition over to the game.”