With Durant hurt, Warriors need Curry to return to MVP form

All of a sudden the invincible Golden State Warriors look vulnerable.

A seemingly harmless play - a battle for a rebound that saw Zaza Pachulia hit the deck - sent a seismic shock across the league. Pachulia slid backwards into Kevin Durant, who left the game with a sprained MCL and a bone bruise that will hold him out indefinitely.

Nobody will cry poor for the Warriors. Subtracting Durant from the equation only leaves the Dubs with the 73-win team that fell one possession shy of the title last season, but there's a question if that team still exists. Durant's addition made everyone shift down a peg, but that still doesn't account for the inexplicable absence of the two-time reigning MVP.

The Warriors need Stephen Curry to reclaim his title as the league's deadliest offensive player until Durant returns. But that's no sure thing.

(photo courtesy of USA Today Sports)

With or without Durant, replicating last season was always an impossible task for the league's golden boy.

Curry set the bar too high for himself by drilling 402 threes and becoming the first-ever unanimous MVP in league history. His efficiency and per-minute scoring rivaled Michael Jordan in his prime. He reinvented the way modern offense was played while leading a 73-win team. He left nothing but a second title for an encore.

Still, nobody quite expected Curry to silently slink into the background. He's still a top-10 player to be sure, but gone are the days of anxious anticipation for what Curry would do next. His regression has him on the level of Isaiah Thomas and Damian Lillard - not exactly a bad problem to have - but the magic to Curry's game isn't there.

Steph was arguably matched by younger brother Seth Curry, who shot better from the field, from deep, and from the line while averaging 16.7 points per game in February. Credit Seth for improving by leaps and bounds, but that just simply should not happen.

Curry's signature shot - the pull-up three - is no longer a cheat code and thus he is no longer leading the Sportscentre highlight reels every night. Curry has been conspicuously absent from the MVP conversation that he rendered moot after Game 1 of last season by dropping a 40-piece.

In all fairness, Curry's drop-off is partially due to Durant's addition.

Accommodating a fellow MVP candidate was always going to require some measure of sacrifice. Curry is just flat-out seeing less of the ball. His touches are down (from 72.1 per game to 64.8) and his shots are down (20.2 attempts to 17.8).

But more than anything else, there's just a notable difference in the discretion with which Curry plays the game.

There's a reason why Curry isn't on every highlight reel like he once was. Last season's Curry was carefree, daring, and willing to make mistakes. That's how those behind-the-back, pull-up fading to the baseline, 35-foot threes came to be. It's a lot harder to justify those shots when it means looking off Durant against a mismatch.

Playing with discretion was necessary to accommodate the superteam, but responsibility doesn't grab headlines. That was Curry's selfless sacrifice - to step down from the league's brightest spotlight for the good of the Warriors.

(photo courtesy of Getty Images)

This is Curry's chance to send a loud reminder around the NBA: put the two-time MVP in the heat of the moment and he can still cook.

All the same core pieces remain. Klay Thompson hasn't forgotten to spot-up in the corner when Curry attacks the basket. Draymond Green can still make plays in 4-on-3 scenarios when defenses trap Curry above the arc. The supporting cast can still play defense at an elite level. Steve Kerr hasn't trashed the playbook that produced a historically efficient offense.

The ball will be returned to Curry along with the spotlight. There will be less of Curry running as a decoy off the ball and more of Curry creating with the ball in his hands.

It's back to the same script from the last two seasons - the Warriors will even park a small forward named "Barnes" in the corner - but that script will only work if Curry steps back into the role of leading man.

The Warriors need Curry to become the two-time MVP again just as badly as he does.