Washington: Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry will enjoy watching the Golden State Warriors hoist another championship banner tonight when they open the 2018-19 NBA campaign against Oklahoma City.
But the 3-point sharpshooter doesn’t need to look to the rafters to know the Warriors remain the team to beat as they begin the quest for a third consecutive NBA title and fourth crown in five seasons.
“I’m still glowing,” Curry said. “The glow won’t wear down until you get beat.”
The Warriors boast three other All-Stars in two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant, defensive stalwart Draymond Green and Curry’s backcourt partner Klay Thompson – plus a fifth in injured centre DeMarcus Cousins, signed in July but still sidelined after left Achilles tendon surgery in January.
Working Cousins into the lineup once he returns could add some zest to the regular season for Golden State, which has so far avoided letting repetitive domination lead to complacency.
“That’s the thing I’m most proud of with our team,” Curry said. “We’re talented and all that, but the work that goes into it, the mental approach to turn the page, has been there the last three years.
“You work so hard to earn the right to be proud of yourself at the end of the summer.”
Feat
Golden State will try to become the first team since the 2000-2002 Los Angeles Lakers to win three consecutive NBA titles and join the 1950s Minneapolis Lakers and 1960s Boston Celtics as the only clubs to win four titles in five years.
The Celtics dynasty, with eight titles in a row and nine in all from 1957-1966, is the only NBA squad to reach five consecutive NBA Finals – a feat the Warriors can achieve this season.
The Houston Rockets, who pushed the Warriors to seven games in last season’s Western Conference finals, and the Boston Celtics, bringing back injured stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward to a team that was one win from last season’s Eastern Conference crown, figure to lead a pack of rivals who ache for a chance to play for the championship.
While four-time NBA MVP LeBron James left Cleveland for the Los Angeles Lakers, he’s unlikely to lift them from 35 wins to title contenders in a season, leaving the Rockets to again offer the best threat in the West to Golden State’s supremacy after adding 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony to the lineup.