Steph Curry switches up pregame routine, escapes the noise, torches the Nets
SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry’s pregame warmup has become such spectacle that the bottom rung of the lower bowl floods with fans 75 minutes prior to every Golden State Warriors home game. That’s when Curry typically emerges from the locker room. It’s a routine known well enough locally that people show up intentionally to catch it.
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But that wasn’t the treat awaiting them Saturday night. The packed sideline and overflowing baseline were instead witness to Dario Šarić working on his methodical pick-and-pops. One particularly eager but confused child was given the bad news from a security guard. Curry wasn’t coming. He’d already finished his workout.
More than two hours prior to tip, long before fans were allowed in the building, Curry came out with Brandin Podziemski as part of the first time slot typically left to the rookies. It was an odd sight — Curry, without all the noise and the adoration and the autograph seekers and attention encircling his every move, getting up jumpers in the quiet. Here’s a quick glimpse.
Steph Curry out way earlier than normal for his pregame shooting routine tonight. Still about two hours to tip. Empty arena. pic.twitter.com/Ef69d18dkt
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 16, 2023
The Warriors beat the Brooklyn Nets 124-120, a needed win at a desperate time. Curry scored 16 of his 37 points in a frantic fourth quarter, jolting himself and the arena to life at several must-have-it moments to drag them across the finish line.
Afterward, in the locker room, I posed a question to Podziemski, the rookie guard who tracks Curry whenever he gets a chance, peppers him with comments from an adjacent locker and can be spotted in that picture above watching him from the far bench: Why do you think Curry was out there with you so early?
To get away from the action and the clutter and the people, Podziemski theorized. It’s something that has awed Podziemski in his first year around his globally famous teammate. There are so many hands out and eyeballs and demands on Curry pregame.
“But he still has to get ready to do his job,” Podziemski said.
Curry’s press conference came a bit later in the evening, right after he spent time taking photos with Monta Ellis’ family in the locker room. Ellis was a guest of the Warriors as part of the franchise’s occasional alumni celebration and his young daughter is a big fan of Curry’s.
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Curry was asked why he changed up his routine and went earlier. He kept it coy.
“Y’all don’t miss anything,” Curry said. “Just wanted to change it up a little to get the mind and body a little prepared to play.”
After Curry wrapped his media duty, Podziemski’s theory was delivered to him. Did you alter the time of your routine to escape distraction and get a more peaceful environment to get ready?
“For sure,” he admitted.
Curry has appeared exhausted postgame after several of these recent gut-punch losses. Go watch his Oklahoma City press conference. He played 40 minutes and scored 34 points that night but again witnessed his tumbling team blow a big lead and fail to close out a conference opponent. After an 0-3 road trip, they were 10-14 and without Draymond Green, whose career is at a crossroads. Curry spent part of the road trip deep in conversation with Green and those trying to drag this team back together during his indefinite suspension.
“Steph’s been through a lot the last few days with the Draymond news,” Steve Kerr said. “He’s had to carry this team, let’s be honest, through the first quarter of the season. We just haven’t been able to build momentum and find lineups that are clicking. He’s carried us. Then the Draymond news. I think he was emotionally spent the last few days, frankly.”
The Warriors again looked in danger of blowing a big lead Saturday night. They went up 18 on the Nets, but it all melted away during a bad third quarter. Brooklyn took the lead early in the fourth. Kerr had to call Curry’s number earlier than planned, subbing him back in with 8:40 left after a Mikal Bridges 3 gave the Nets a 99-97 lead.
Curry would proceed to score 16 points on 7 of 7 shooting over the next eight minutes. His two fourth-quarter 3s came back-to-back right before the five-minute mark. It sent the score from a 106-106 tie to a 112-106 Warriors lead. After the second deep right-wing 3, he turned to Nets coach Jacque Vaughn and threw up a timeout signal. Here’s the shot.
After the demonstrative timeout demand, Curry then found Gary Payton II on the bench and went through a prolonged roaring celebration. It was the kind of emotional outburst from Curry that made you wonder whether the Nets players had chirped at him to get him going.
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“No,” Curry said. “We just needed this win extremely bad. That was a good momentum swing. And I was a little bit tired. So I wanted them to take a timeout so I could go to the bench.”
Curry’s fight against fatigue was the theme of the night. Andrew Wiggins is in a deep enough slump that he’s been replaced in the starting lineup by Podziemski. Klay Thompson is heating up, having scored 54 in the last two games combined, but his high usage inconsistency has debilitated the Warriors’ offense several nights. Then there’s Green, whose suspensions take him off the court and shower the franchise in constant drama.
That’s left Curry — who will turn 36 in March but is still averaging 29 points on 47/42/94 shooting splits — in a race against time, summoning as much energy as possible to drag this Warriors team out of a spiral and back into the playoff picture before it’s too late. Has that been emotionally draining?
“Yeah,” Curry said. “There’s been a lot of conversations, a lot of noise around us. We had a meeting the day before the L.A. game that was important for us to settle where we were, what was going on and everyone could say how they felt. The game of basketball presents a lot of challenges on the court but the friendships you have, the connections you have — especially for a guy like Draymond, who you’ve gone to war with for over a decade — all that stuff does weigh on you. You’re trying to figure it out. You’re trying to support him. It’s just basketball, but there’s a lot of stress you carry to perform while you’re managing all the emotions. It’s a lot but every year presents a certain challenge. You have to be mentally tough through it all. I pride myself in bouncing back from times where it gets a little low.”
(Photo: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
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