Curry, Warriors believe they'll stay together to chase more titles

SAN FRANCISCO(AP) — Stephen Curry is far from ready to accept that these GoldenState Warriors are done chasing championships together.

DraymondGreen and Klay Thompson, too.

Same goes forKevon Looney and Andrew Wiggins.

“No matterhow different it looks, I think we understand each other, what weall bring to the table and trust that we’re just gonna competeuntil the wheels fall off,” the 35-year-old Curry said.

The defendingchampions’ season ended in a 122-101 loss in Game 6 to the Lakersin Los Angeles on Friday night, the first time this core group ofCurry, Green and Thompson have been eliminated before the NBAFinals after 19 straight playoff series wins against WesternConference opponents under coach Steve Kerr. Golden State alsofailed to to win at least one road game after doing so in anNBA-record 28 consecutive series.

Sure, theWarriors realize all of the outside speculation that the Curry-leddynasty could be done. The franchise captured four titles overeight years, reaching the NBA Finals in five straight seasons from2015-19.

“It’sprobably too raw right now for me to think about,” Kerr said. “Theone thing I will say is that Draymond, Klay, Steph, our core guys,they’ve got plenty left. There’s still plenty in the tank there. Ithought they all had great seasons. It may not have ended on a highnote but all three guys are still high-level players and I stillfeel like this team has championship potential. We didn’t get therethis year but it’s not like this is the end of the road.”

Looney wasn’tquite ready to fully look back at the season to evaluate the highsand lows — or why the Warriors never could consistently find theirrhythm on the road. They went 11-30 away from Chase Center on theway to a 44-38 regular-season record.

“Last yearafter we won, I got a chance to reflect and think about all thegreat things that we did. But this year, still fresh. Still a sorespot getting put out in the second round,” Looney said Saturdaywith the Warriors back at Chase Center making offseasonpreparations and going through exit interviews.

“This grouphas been through a lot and I feel like we’ve got a lot more togive, and watching Steph, Klay and Draymond, what they did allseason, what they did in the playoffs, was spectacular, and itobviously shows that they have a lot left more to give.”

Yet the questfor a repeat title began with Green punching Jordan Poole duringtraining camp, then the Warriors worked through that team crisisonly to struggle on the road and miss key players to injury forlong stretches. The continuity was rarely there.

“Last year wewere a little bit more together,” Wiggins said Saturday, adding, “Ifeel like the future’s bright for this organization, all theplayers.”

Looney andWiggins — Curry, Green and Thompson weren’t among those players tospeak at the arena Saturday — were still coming to terms with thedisappointing early exit.

Golden Stateneeded Curry’s 50-point masterpiece in Game 7 at Sacramento in thefirst round to beat the Kings and become the first defendingchampion to rally from a 2-0 deficit.

Then he andThompson struggled to knock down the key shots against the Lakers.Golden State’s 365 missed 3-pointers in the first two rounds arethe most in NBA history, topping the 2020 Rockets’ 358. And aftergoing a combined 6 for 26 from deep in the deciding Game 6, Curryand Thompson became one of only three pairs to each have missed 10or more 3s in the same playoff game.

Now, theywill part ways and work to regroup again — and see how the rostermight change.

“We will allcollectively kind of handle those at the right time. I thinkobviously, start at the top and working down in terms of trying toput together the best team possible next year,” Curry said. “Makingsure all the pieces fit and understanding how we can retool to putourselves in position to be legit championship contender becausefor us, that’s all we’re worried about.”

Thompson,like the others, will need a little time before moving forward.

“It stingsreal bad and it’s going to sting all summer,” Thompson said. “Firsttime in a long time that Dray, Steph and I were healthy not makingthe finals. So it’s rare to be off during this time of year but Ican tell you we gave it everything we had.”