NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAVERICKS VS. WARRIORS

May 22, 2022

Steph Curry

Golden State Warriors

Game 3: Postgame

Warriors 109, Mavericks 100

Q. Is this maybe the most complex defensive series from a game plan, like within the game, changing defensive coverages that you guys have had?

STEPH CURRY: Yes and no, like there's a lot of communication because we switched defenses a lot throughout the game. But what we're trying to do is pretty straightforward in terms of giving Luka a lot of difference looks because he has the ball in his hands pretty much every possession. As long as we're on the same page, you know you're going to send a lot of bodies at him. You're going to have to rotate and whatnot. Where we get in trouble is if we try to switch when you're on the fly and not everybody is on the same page and you give up something.

But for man to zone or box or whatever it is, those are pretty straightforward defenses that we've practiced pretty much all year.

Q. How helpful has Loon been in this series and on the road tonight?

STEPH CURRY: It's a testament how things change in the playoffs from series to series, games to games, you have to have everybody stay ready. If you asked Loon, Game 4 of Memphis series, like how do you feel? He probably would have said that not knowing what's about to happen and he comes in, Game 6, makes a huge difference. Has a career-night rebounding the ball.

In this series, he's had career nights and had an amazing impact every night. So that's how we do things obviously with everybody being a part and being a factor at some point but it's how the playoffs go. You just love to see a guy get rewarded for staying ready.

Q. When did you I guess come to the realization that when you get into these moments that Wiggins was a guy who could be with you and Klay and Draymond; that this is somebody that in we're in that moment, he's going to be good with us?

STEPH CURRY: There's no moment. I said that at the time of when the trade happen, it was the idea of what he could do to impact games for us. Defensively, his athleticism, he was a 20-point scorer so he knew how to put the ball in the basket but he would be asked to do it a different way and balance with the rest of the guys. We've been preaching that since he joined the team well over two years ago.

It's amazing to see it happen under the bright lights. You don't know how a guy is going to respond when they are asked to do what we are asking him to do at this stage in the season in the playoffs and you have the highest hopes, and he's stepping up, and that's only because of his approach and his attitude and him just being a gamer. What we're asking him to do is guard the best guy on the other side and make it difficult on him, be aggressive offensively, take what you see, or just don't rebound the ball.

It's been awesome. Even just his comfort level, to put pressure on the rim, like we don't have that much vertical threat with the other guys that we have. He can provide that. When the driving lanes are there, you've seen him just attack the rim, get to the foul line, the dunk he had, the put-back he had, all that stuff matters.

Q. What happened there on the sideline where you just simply tripped and were you a little upset by that?

STEPH CURRY: Yeah, man, like 30 seconds before halftime, you order a drink, just wait till halftime -- it's like, right. I don't know why they needed to deliver it right then. Thankfully I was all right, but hopefully that guy -- he was doing his job, so hopefully he got a big tip.

Q. And before that, was there a little words between you and the Mavericks' bench? Everybody came together for a little bit. You celebrated a three by running all the way to the other side and then it took a long time for you to get back.

STEPH CURRY: No, just playoff words being exchanged from everybody. Just a lot of parties involved on that one.

Q. Going back to Andrew, does it add to your motivation to see a player like him who had to go through some rough stretches early in his career, does it add to your motivation to see him have the success in his first playoff run?

STEPH CURRY: It's just a testament again to the vision of the fit that he was going to be when the trade happened; the fact that we know we needed everybody to step up for us to get back to this stage, and for us to win one playoff series, let alone get to where we are at right now.

It's not motivation. It's more an excitement that we can do it a different way with a guy that hasn't been at this level yet, knowing he was an amazing scorer, his journey through the league, that he can figure out how to impact winning. That's all we keep saying, find a way to impact winning. Wiggs has been doing it. Loon has been doing it. JP has been doing it. That's how we do things.

Q. Did you see Luka's shimmy and can you give your professional critique of it?

STEPH CURRY: I didn't see it. I'll do some homework and I'll get back to you on that one.

Q. Also, were there was some talk before this series that this was the changing of the point guard, you versus the young guy. Did you get any motivation from that, like talk about comparisons between you and Luka?

STEPH CURRY: Y'all know, I hear everything. That's not the motivation though.

The motivation is the fact that we are back on this stage with the opportunity to chase a Finals appearance again after two years hiatus, and like I said, being back with our core but with a new cast of characters, it's an opportunity to do something special.

I don't need any extra motivation. It's just trying to take advantage of the opportunity knowing they are not going to come -- you shouldn't take it for granted. There's a limit to how this goes.

Q. You guys have had 26 series now in a row with a road win. Is there a thread that you can see when half the team is new?

STEPH CURRY: Yeah, me, Klay, Draymond, and even Andre on the bench, helping us out, being our voice and eyes and ears. We all just know how to win and we love those type of grind-out games where might not be pretty from start to finish, but you just figure out way a to impact plays at the right times and come out with a win. It's a good feeling to come on the road against a team that has been playing amazing in this building, especially if you look at how the last series went with them in a 2-0 hole and coming back and dominating at home. Like that's a big win. There's a lot that goes into making that happen and everybody stepping up and contributing.

Q. With the way the pieces have come together, do you feel like this team is ready to win a championship?

STEPH CURRY: I'm not going to fast forward. We're playing great basketball right now. We can play better but we're finding ways to win games. That's how you piece this thing together. There's no expectation other than what's the challenge ahead of us, and the challenge now is to close out a series against a really good team to get back to an opportunity to win the Finals.

Like if you asked us -- we talked about it when the playoffs started. Like we had high hopes, and we still do, to win a championship but we had no idea what it was going to look like. Our goal was to keep getting better as the playoffs went through because we were so far from our peak with everything going into how the season ended.

That's not lost on us but it's exciting. We have an amazing opportunity on Tuesday to come out of the West.

Q. You said the team could play better. What are a couple things you'd like to see and improve on in Game 4?

STEPH CURRY: There's just times throughout the game where we kind of get a little scattered and get a little rushed. Especially offensively. Did a better job of taking care of the basketball, which is always a key for us and rebounding but there's just times where we get a little bit more organized, and you need to take advantage of those stretches of the game because especially on the road, those can dictate a win or a loss if you let a team get momentum, especially if you kind of play into their hands a little bit.

There's a moment in the first, early second, where we were up I think 10 or 11 and they claw back to three, which they are supposed to do. But there's a lot of stuff that we can tighten up in terms of what we are trying to do offensively.

Defense has been amazing. Effort has been great. Flying around. Trying to make it tough on them. Even Luka getting 40, a lot of that is from free-throw line but we still can make him work. Offensively we've just got to continue to get better.

Q. Would you say like this might be the most gratifying season for you guys just because of everything --

STEPH CURRY: Gratifying season?

Q. Gratifying season. Just because of everything you guys had to go through to get here. Obviously, it's always an immense accomplishment to get to this point.

STEPH CURRY: I mean, we'll see.

Q. How much of a factor do you think Wiggins being with you guys, losing the play-in last year, you guys built this coming up, losing to the Clippers and building that kind of character; him having that with you guys, do you think that has had any impact?

STEPH CURRY: It's a great call. That's a great -- that last 20 games we had last year, we went 15-5, and clawed our way to the eighth-seed and we lost those two play-in games. He felt the intensity.

That was one of the things we talked about last year, like we gave it everything we had down the stretch to even get to that position. We would have loved to have a playoff series to go through those reps to see if we could have put something together. But those two play-in games and those last 20 games were great for us to build an understanding of how you value every possession, the intensity you need to have to win games like that.

We obviously finished the season strong record-wise, but didn't reach the ultimate goal. He felt all of that. JP felt all of that. And it's carried over to this year for sure and it's carried over into this playoff run where he seems just very composed and under control and understanding what he needs to do on a nightly basis, and I hope he feels the recognition for -- it's not just what it looks like on the stats sheet. It's what it looks like from the eye test and how it impacts the game and how it impacts us winning.

Q. Is that your favorite Wiggins dunk?

STEPH CURRY: Absolutely.

Q. You liked the Towns one early in the year.

STEPH CURRY: Fourth quarter in a big win, not just because it was Luka, it was just because of the way it looked. It was unbelievable. And we got to see 800 replays because of the challenge, so appreciate you, Mark. That was nice.