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Few players in league history know the NBA Finals quite like Stephen Curry. The Golden State Warriors superstar has played for the Larry O'Brien Trophy a whopping six times in his career, including all but two of the last eight seasons.
Still, fighting the Boston Celtics for a championship at TD Garden last season proved a different challenge for Curry, one that brought out the best of him when the Warriors needed it most.
On the upcoming episode The Old Man & The Three, Curry explained the mindset that prompted his instant-classic 43-point performance in Golden State's pivotal Game 4 victory of the 2022 NBA Finals—plus the iconic first quarter tongue-lashing he gave the Boston Crowd.
"It was different because we were tested in a way that was new… This was a different element of emotional response that we hadn't really seen before."
Stephen Curry on why Game 4 vs. Boston is his favorite game of his career
(via @OldManAndThree)pic.twitter.com/tXSf78OgPG
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 21, 2022
“I have so much experience in that setting. Obviously, that was the sixth one,” Curry said. “It was different because it was Boston, it was in that hostile environment, and it was different because we were tested in a way that was new. When you see this fan base and what not go at one of your guys, and like constantly just berate him and cross the line and do all that type of stuff…We lose Game 3 and you're in that environment, it's like, ‘Holy s***, this is gonna be a dogfight.' We knew that going in but this was a different element of emotional response that we hadn't really seen before.
“Then you get into the first quarter and we're already down like 12-4 or something like that,” he continued. “We slowly gain some momentum. I think we were down, I don't know, I hit that one shot and I started like yelling at the crowd. I was like, ‘This is gonna be a different motherf***ing game!' I said that. My mama got mad at me because of my word choice, and I was like, ‘Ah, you're right.' But I was just unleashing a different level of…like I'm here. Like we're here, and you ain't gonna count the parade already in terms of the 19,000 people that seem to be in unison in what they were saying every single possession. Like it was ‘we're here' and we're gonna respond, and see what happens.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QTkXoW7P14&ab_channel=ChazNBA
Golden State entered Game 4 down 2-1, with fans continuously raining chants of “F*** you Draymond!” down on the TD Garden floor during the Celtics' victory in Game 3.
The Warriors, with Curry leading the way, knew they needed to reciprocate that fiery intensity in hopes of evening the series before it shifted back to San Francisco. The result? Not just perhaps the finest performance of his legendary career, but a game that Curry counts as his personal favorite.
“It just required another level of response from us. For me, I wanted to lead that even though we were still down in the first quarter,” he said. “I was like, ‘I don't really know what I'm talking about, but let's go' and kinda manifested a three-game run for the books. And Game 4 was definitely my favorite game of my career because of the stakes that were a part of it, and the fact that if we lose that game, who knows if we ever have a chance to win a championship again.”
That last part remains to be seen. What doesn't is the significance of a game both Curry, his teammates and basketball fans across the globe will never, ever forget.
