CLEVELAND — Stephen Curry was the symbol of frustration, despair, rage and utter defeat.
Not anybody else. Just him, the MVP, the future Hall of Famer, the Warriors’ statesman and usual symbol of stability and steely confidence.
You can say that Curry had a right to be outraged about fouling out with 4:22 left in the Warriors’ 115-101 loss Thursday to Cleveland in Game 6 of the Finals.
You can say that he showed fight and fury when he fired his mouthpiece into the first row of Quicken Loans Arena, bounced it off a fan and got ejected.
You can logically say that the Warriors are still tied 3-3 in this series and should be favored to finish this off at Oracle Arena in a do-or-die Game 7 on Sunday, which is all true.
Curry can lead them to back-to-back championships; Curry is capable of doing that almost by himself and showed that in moments in Game 6.
But Curry’s display was so out of character that it illustrated everything that has gone wrong for Curry and his team in these two consecutive losses after they went up 3-1.
And it tells you how unsettled LeBron James and the Cavaliers have made the Warriors feel, and how much Curry and his teammates need to brace themselves for several days of potential panic.
“Yeah, I’m happy he threw his mouthpiece,” coach Steve Kerr said of Curry. “He should be upset …
“We’re a rhythm offense. If they’re going to let Cleveland grab and hold these guys constantly on their cuts and then you’re going to call these ticky-tack fouls on the MVP of the league to foul him out, I don’t agree with that.”
Kerr added a lot more detail to his complaints about the referees, including a suggestion that ref Jason Phillips fell for a LeBron flop.
“Three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league,” Kerr summarized.
Kerr said that he wasn’t blaming the referees for the loss, but was clearly supporting his star, trying to channel the Warriors’ simmering emotions, and also maneuvering to send a message to the Game 7 referees and to the league about the way Curry is being treated.
Which is another sign that the Warriors know they need to use every angle and every bit of leverage they can to survive this.
Of course, there were a lot of other things going on in this game: Andre Iguodala gutted out 30 minutes of action defending LeBron with a stiff back, but James (41 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds) absolutely dominated for the second consecutive game.
Also, center Andrew Bogut is out with a knee injury, forward Harrison Barnes looked lost for the second straight game, and Kerr’s options are getting more and more limited.
But there’s only one game left, probably the biggest one in either franchise’s history, and the Warriors are coming off an emotional firestorm.
“We feel like we could have closed it out a long time ago, but here we are,” Klay Thompson said. “It’s tied up 3-3, and we’re going back home.
