In the midst of four years of unparalleled success, monotony is bound to kick in at one point or another, but even with the pressure of the world hanging upon the Golden State Warriors last season, they managed to meet and then exceed expectations, capturing their second title in three years.

Forward Kevin Durant attributes that to Stephen Curry's leadership and laser-sharp focus after Durant suffered a Grade 2 sprained MCL against the Washington Wizards in Feb. 2017, team who they face again tonight.

“You just saw him practicing and he started becoming more aggressive,” veteran forward David West told ESPN's Chris Haynes. “When we were going 5-on-5, he was going 100 miles an hour and everybody is like, ‘Oh s**t. This m*****f***er is serious.' And that was also at shootaround. He got everybody going. It was during that stretch that he became a little bit more vocal, more demonstrative about the urgency we needed to have to keep the season alive when you lose somebody like KD.”

Durant noticed it as well, keeping his eyes open at the training facility despite his focus on his recovery.

“Hell yeah, I saw it,” Durant said. “As a leader, as one of the best players in the league, you see one of your teammates go down, you feel as though you have to pick up the slack. … Mentally, he was just locked in and he's been that way ever since. That focus carried us to a title last year.”

Helped by bench spark plug Andre Iguodala, Curry was able to still keep his relatively laid back approach, yet still let the rest of his teammates know when he means business, asserting his leadership role as the longest-tenured player in the team.

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So what did the baby-faced assassin do? Let the work speak for itself.

“I've had to learn when it was time to say something,” Curry said. “I wasn't always considered one of the best players on the team. I had to grow into the role of leadership, and in many ways, I'm still growing into it. But I know how to work hard, and I like to let that speak for me.”

Curry didn't let go of the rope during the postseason, putting up six 30-point games, along with a 40-point outing against the San Antonio Spurs, which had the Warriors wipe out the competition with a torrid 15-1 postseason run.