It's no secret that the Stephen Curry the world saw in the 2015-16 playoffs wasn't the back-to-back MVP it witnessed all season long.

While the Golden State Warriors were good enough to get past the Oklahoma City Thunder in a best-of-seven heart-pounding series, they ultimately fell short — losing three in a row in the Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

An ailing playoff Curry

Curry suffered an ankle injury in Game 1 in the first round against the Houston Rockets, only to come back in Game 4 and sprain his knee due to a wet spot created just seconds before his fall took place.

After sitting out the first three games against Portland in the next round, he came back to score 40 and 29 in the last two games of the series. However, once it was time to face the Thunder, the minutes wore too heavily on his body.

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Coach Steve Kerr scaled back his minutes and even started hiding him on defense, which he hadn't needed to do all season long. The Cavaliers picked up on that fact during the Finals and played him physically – he was relied on as a shooter and didn't have the same bounce in his legs to drive and get around defenders or make sharp cuts toward the basket.

“Teams were absolutely physical with him,” Kerr said in an interview with Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News. “That’s what I would do if I were coaching against him. I think that’s smart.”

“I think playoff basketball is a little different than regular season in terms of how physical it is away from the ball. And so we can probably do some things to help him a little bit more in that regard.”

What Curry must do moving forward

Curry shot 40 percent from the field and from deep in the Finals. His scoring numbers, assists, and steals dropped and his turnovers went up due to the physical defense and his desire to do too much at times.

“But he knows how teams are going to defend him,” added Kerr. “It’s all part of it. He’s a two-time MVP, the whole league is game-planning for him. He has to be able to counter-act that and we have to help him with that.”

While the injury played a big part on Curry's lateral movement, he can certainly gain more from being able to play through contact more often. It wouldn't be a surprise if he added something else to his arsenal just like he has every year of his career.