Every member of the Warriors had a valid reason to put forth a poor performance in Toronto, no one more than the oldest man on the roster. The dude closing in on his 36th birthday who “looked tired” five days ago.
But even after a long airport delay before an early morning flight from New York to Toronto, Stephen Curry offered no excuses. He shook off the “tired” notion last Sunday. And on Friday night, he went out and set fire to it in a 120-105 victory over the Raptors.
Curry’s sheer determination – and some vociferous coaxing from coach Steve Kerr – helped the Warriors to overcome fatigue from leaving New York almost five hours behind schedule due to a reported mechanical problem at the airport.
The rest of the team followed the example set by its leaders.
“If you’re going to win, you have to be resilient,” Draymond Green told reporters at Scotiabank Arena. “If your leaders are resilient, you have no choice. And Steph is one of the most resilient people I’ve ever seen. Steve Kerr is resilient as hell. And when have that everybody else kind of falls in line.”
After a mostly forgettable first half ended with the Warriors trailing 64-61, they came out in the third quarter and somehow kicked themselves into overdrive, with Curry at the wheel. His first 3-pointer, less than two minutes into the quarter, tied the game. His second gave them a seven-point lead. His third, 27 pushed the lead to 10 and shoved the Raptors toward sleepy town.
Suddenly, the Warriors looked like the fresher squad. They outscored the Raptors 32-19 in the third quarter – with the defense limiting Toronto to 27.8-percent shooting from the field – and the lead never dipped below seven points.
“We had an eventful day, or an eventful night,” Chris Paul said on NBC Sports Bay Area’s Warriors Postgame. “Couldn’t get out of New York.
“But this team right here, it’s a lot of resilient guys. We could have found every excuse in the book to come out and lay down tonight, but we’ve got a lot of guys that are not built like that.”
