Winning a championship is no easy task, and even for a team with two former MVPs like the Golden State Warriors, it was a major adjustment that had to take place in order to build a championship team.

Stephen Curry explained what it took to make a team that had just added Kevin Durant over the offseason into a champion, after a torrid 15-1 postseason run.

“You can’t just roll the ball out and be like, ‘Go play. Y’all are talented. Y’all will figure it out,’ ” Curry told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. “For three years, we had been grinding with a certain roster, and a way of playing, and that all changed and you’ve got to adjust and K especially brings a different level of play but we had to figure out how to balance it all.”

Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson
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The Warriors already had a formula in place — one that started with the commitment to defense under former coach Mark Jackson, and was fine-tuned by Steve Kerr, winning them the first championship in 40 years in 2014-15 and coming a game short of the second in 2015-16.

“We had some ups and downs. We won some games, but it wasn’t as smooth as we wanted it to be,” said Curry about Durant’s addition. “And I think we were overthinking it too much, early on. Hit a little stumbling block, talked our way through it, figured our way out of it and we’re better for it.”

Much was made about the sacrifices that would have to be made with the firepower at hand, but Durant, Curry, and Klay Thompson all averaged well over 20 points per game, with everyone sacrificing just a little every day and making sure to feed the hot hand at the right time.

Yet the sacrifice didn’t really feel like sacrifice, but was just part of buying into a system that rewards hitting the open man.

“It’s personalities that mesh. It’s a willingness to sacrifice a bit and still keep what makes K who he is and what makes me who I am,” said Curry of his relationship with Durant. “I think we understand that the game of basketball is bigger than just one person and winning is fun, but it’s great when you get to play with guys that actually care about the game in a genuine way and put the time in.”

Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, warriors
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The Warriors’ 15-1 playoff run wasn’t as smooth sailing as the record suggests, as Golden State navigated an injury to Durant early in the postseason, as well as being without head coach Steve Kerr for 10 games, with assistant Mike Brown taking over the helm. Regardless of it, it was the jelling between two great players that made it such an easy adjustment to make over time.