Lowell Cohn: Stephen Curry's good can't compare to LeBron James' great

OAKLAND - Not where the Warriors want to be. On a plane to Cleveland, having lost 112-97 on their home court, having blown a chance to win the NBA championship and complete the greatest season in NBA history.

Well, put all the accolades on hold.

Certainly not the circumstance the Warriors wanted, this lopsided series now a real series. A serious series. Game 6 on Thursday in Cleveland, that Cavaliers crowd going nuts and singing Hang on Sloopy, and LeBron James getting himself ready for one more supreme effort. He makes supreme efforts. It's what he does. He made one on Monday night.

And that's the point. He was supreme and Stephen Curry wasn't. I'm afraid of writing what I'm about to write, being critical of Curry, the anointed one around here. But there's something you'd call a “good” effort - Curry and his 25 points and 8 for 21 shooting. And there's something you'd call a “championship” effort - James' 41 points, Kyrie Irving's 41 points, Klay Thompson's 37 points.

Curry did not deliver the great game the Warriors required. Why was a great game required from him? Because Draymond Green was relaxing across the way in a luxury suite at the Coliseum, taking in the Warriors game on the tube. He sure wasn't helping his team. Wasn't playing defense.

Because of the Warriors' lack of Green, the Cavs had 93 points after three quarters. Hard to beat a team that scores like that. The Warriors were in position of having to outscore the Cavs - how Don Nelson coached basketball. That style is everything the Warriors are not. They are a defense-first team. And that meant the game was a shootout. And that meant the Warriors needed a championship game from Curry.

Because it was a championship game. A championship effort is laying it on the line. Playing as if your reputation depends on it - for James it did. Playing as if your life depends on it. For James it seemed to.

You saw James on the court, saw what it meant to him. You felt it through the noise of Oracle. What a privilege to watch what he did, an aging athlete at his best, a privilege to watch him even if you're sore at him. He absorbed the boos and hatred of the crowd and didn't care. Fought off every Warriors defender and didn't care. He willed the Cavs to win. He was Michael Jordan. Magic Johnson. Heck, he was LeBron James.

“We had the mindset that we wanted to extend our period,” he said afterward. What an understatement. They wanted to stay alive.

Thompson and Irving played at James' level. Wonderful ball. Wonderful to behold. Played like it was the last game of the season. And it could have been. James and Irving avoided that, and Thompson tried to make it happen - the last game, the winning game. Thompson rising for those jumpers, his stroke textbook, his face a mask.

But Curry never arrived. He let down the Warriors in a way. Not like Green let them down, nothing like that. Curry played like it was a Tuesday night in December in Milwaukee, a getaway game. You don't want to get exhausted because so much season remains. You don't want to get hurt. So you give that almost-good-enough effort.

But it wasn't Tuesday in Milwaukee. And almost good enough wasn't nearly good enough. It was the closeout game in Oakland.

The game was tied at the half and close for a long time. For the Warriors that didn't seem a problem. They would go on a run. Curry would lead them. We've seen it so many times. Curry sinks a bunch of 3s swish swish swish and the game cracks open like an egg.

He raises his hand to the heavens. Raise. Raise. Raise. His trademark. The Warriors trademark - when they put the other team in their rearview mirror, the dirt from the Warriors tires spraying dust in their opponent's sad faces.

It never happened. A thing we took for granted stopped happening, like gravity not working anymore. Curry played well, if well is enough. But he didn't play passionately. There was no madness to his game - madness in the sense of crazy and possessed.

Without Green, who often goes crazy on the court and is doing time because of it, the Warriors needed an inspired madman, one in addition to Thompson. The Cavs had two, and the Warriors needed two.

Curry is so pleasant. And laidback. He needs to feel terrified, it seems, to be Curry the Crazy, Curry who takes over games. It seems that way sometimes. He is the Warriors' leader. Green is a false leader. The Warriors follow Curry. When Curry is good but not inspired, when he is acceptable but not obsessed, the others play like him.

After the game, Steve Kerr gave mild criticism of Curry - “I thought there might have been a couple of times where Steph got into a little bit of a hurry.”

Whatever.

Curry came to the interview room with Thompson. Curry studied the stat sheet like it was his last will and testament. Didn't look at media. He shifted his eyes. Hiding in plain site. Mouth tight. Almost penitent. Or was it angry?

Most of questions went to Thompson, like Curry was the sidekick. Monday night he was. Finally, Curry broke a smile. The world would continue. The Warriors are up 3-2, not so bad.

“It sucks,” Curry said, his eyes bright. He meant it sucks not to close out the Cavs in Oakland. Curry hates when things suck. Expect this loss to sting his ego. Expect him to be an insane maniac Thursday night. Obsessed. Like his reputation depends on it. Like his life depends on it.

Come Game 6, the Warriors need a marvelous Stephen Curry grand obsession.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.