Stephen Curry needs to resemble the league MVP before it's too late

CLEVELAND – The scratch was noticeable, a long red mark running right across Stephen Curry’s neck, from his left side to under his chin. It looked like it might have been multiple scratches, actually, swipe after swipe at him.

As far as wounds were concerned, it wasn’t much, especially inside the Golden State locker room. Ice packs and wraps were everywhere after Cleveland’s 96-91 Game 3 victory here Tuesday, giving the Cavs a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Finals. It was no different across the way with the Cavs.

The markings were symbolic, not significant.

This here is a battle, though, a battle for the Finals, a battle for how an MVP should play, a battle for Stephen Curry and his Warriors against a LeBron James team that is proudly clawing and scraping and finding a way.

“It’s East-style basketball right now, lot of grabbing and holding,” Warriors center Andrew Bogut said. “It’s physical. We’re trying to get adjusted to that in a way. It’s tough.”

Cleveland’s tough. Golden State hasn’t matched it. Maybe it isn’t that simple. Maybe it is. What’s clear is the two stars of this series, James, the best player in the league, and Curry, the sensation who won the MVP, are thus far following differing tracks and the hints of a rivalry are starting to show.

James scored 40 but needed 34 shots to get it, taking the ball from the opening possession to the end and driving to the hoop over and over, daring the Warriors to stop him. He took just six threes and one was at the end of the shot clock. He simply pushes harder and harder and harder.

Curry, meanwhile, wound up with 27 on 10-of-20 shooting and was 7 of 13 from behind the arc. It was misleading. He was just 1 of 6 in the first half, when he often just floated around. He went long stretches with no impact on the game. LeBron is always in the mix.

“He’s shooting an OK percentage in our eyes,” Curry said. “He’s getting up a lot of attempts.”

Ah, advanced metrics.

“I don’t have a reaction,” James said. “I don’t have a comment for Steph. That’s not my concern. What my concern [is that] I come out and play aggressive. If it’s high-volume shooting, I’m living in the paint … it’s the Finals, it’s whatever it takes.”

This may be the lesson Curry is learning, that waiting for the game to come to you, waiting for the offense to flow, deferring in the biggest of games, even for a quarter, can cost you.

“I’ve got to be aggressive,” Curry said. “I said that going into tonight’s game. That’s what I was going to do.”

It’s easier said than done, especially when the Cavs have no problem getting physical, putting the relentless Matthew Dellavedova on Curry to flat-out harass him. There is no freedom of movement here, no easy plays, no open looks.

And no apologies.

At one point, late in the fourth, LeBron James slide-tackled Curry, wrecking him in a way that would be a foul in nearly every sport known to man, but not in this game.

“I thought he slid into my legs and kind of took me out,” Curry said.

Eventually Curry caught fire, forced himself into the play and everything changed. The Warriors made a run and made Cleveland have to squeeze this out. That was the Curry that Golden State has to have.

“Whether I’m making shots or not, I have to stay … I’ll use the word, 'vibrant,' " Curry said. “Just kind of having fun out there. Because the team definitely feeds off of my energy and joy for the game. So if it’s not going our way, or not going my way specifically, I’ve got to find different ways to get us going.

“This is going to be a hard-fought series and I’ve got to have a huge part in it.”

When he’s on, Curry is devastating. Postgame someone asked LeBron if “there is a scarier player in the league.” LeBron wasn’t going there.

“A scarier opponent in our league?” James said. “I mean, we have some very great basketball players in our league and Steph happens to be one of them.”

And so there you go. So here we go.

Around Cleveland there is acknowledgement that LeBron, the best player in the league, has found an extra measure of motivation by facing the man who won the MVP. James has plenty of respect for Curry – he offers plenty of praise – but there is no way he sees Curry as an equal and there is no way he’s going to concede an inch here in the Finals.

The Cavs are down two All-Stars because of injury yet up one game in the Finals. This isn’t the time for philosophical debates on how to play the game.

“This is it,” forward Tristan Thompson said. “This is all.”

LeBron is the clear alpha dog on a team in which every role is now perfectly defined, including all these scrapers who will pride themselves on beating on Steph Curry, pushing him around, trying to rattle him into passivity.

“I didn’t like our energy,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I didn’t like our body language for much of the first three quarters.”

Kerr knows it’s Curry who has to change here because Cleveland sure isn’t.

“They are going to blitz him,” Kerr said.

“We just try to continue to make it tough on him,” LeBron promised.

Curry said he understands the problem. He said he has a solution. He said Thursday will be different, that starting aggressively will be more than just talk.

The scratches will heal. The bruises will fade. Cleveland will look to inflict more, though.

It’s up to Stephen Curry to deliver a few back, to stand up to LeBron before it’s too late.

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