Stephen Curry’s Return Reminds NBA Why Warriors Are Championship Favorites

It was fun pretending, wasn’t it?

For two weeks while Stephen Curry rehabilitated his sprained right MCL, we talked ourselves into all this great stuff the Golden State Warriors could still accomplish without their best player. We marveled at the way they’d pulled together, defended and compensated for the absence of a superstar with collective play.

And maybe somewhere along the line, we even convinced ourselves Curry’s loss wasn’t as significant as it seemed.

The charade ended Monday, as Curry exploded for an NBA-record 17 of his 40 points in overtime of the Warriors’ 132-125 victory against the Portland Trail Blazers. Thanks to him, the Dubs will return to Oakland with a 3-1 series lead.

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If we’d only heeded the soon-to-be two-time MVP’s coy pregame assessment to Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group, we’d have seen this coming:

Stephen Curry just ran by me, winked and said: “I’m good.”He’s playing.

— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) May 10, 2016

Curry even repeated the message at higher volume in that incredible overtime.

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The night didn’t begin auspiciously, as Curry came off the bench to find his team in a 16-2 hole with 5:58 remaining in the first quarter. Sloppy play, stagnant offense and perplexingly disjointed defense contributed to the deficit, and Curry, at that juncture, didn’t look equipped to erase it.

He air-balled his first three-point attempt and missed his next eight from long range, looking uncomfortable shooting off the bounce and searching for a rhythm. And when Shaun Livingston earned his first career ejection after picking up two rapid-fire technical fouls from official Scott Foster in the second quarter, the …

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