For 12 years, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were joined at the hip in the Warriors’ backcourt. They played more than 600 games, each finding his best self with the presence of the other. They won together, lost together, laughed together, agonized together.
Even had a catchy nickname.
Thompson chose to close that book in July. Not because the partnership had soured but because his relationship with the franchise wore thin. Upon becoming an unrestricted free agent, he joined the Dallas Mavericks.
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Which put Curry and the Warriors in search mode. Through his first 10 games this season, Curry has four different sidekicks: Andrew Wiggins, Moses Moody, De’Anthony Melton and Lindy Waters III – every guard on the roster besides Buddy Hield and Brandin Podziemski, who anchor the second unit.
It is a dramatically different look for Curry and the team, and it requires an adjustment period.
“But for me and Klay, there was always that level of trust and nonverbal communication on the court that we always could rely on,” Curry said on NBC Sports Bay Area’s "Dubs Talk," which debuted Wednesday. “And that's built over time. The transition has been attached to not just Klay not being here but us trying to figure out what this specific team needs to be successful.
“It's kind of all blended in together. It's not really an ultra-focus on, ‘Oh, this is where Klay would have been.’ Or ‘This is a play that we would have run.’ It's more just generally about how are we playing? How are we going to figure out how to win games this year?”
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Curry, like Thompson, is focusing on the future while savoring the past. The past includes the two of them coming of age in the 2012 postseason, setting an NBA record for 3-pointers by teammates in 2012-13, becoming the only duo to surpass 600 combined triples in a season, winning four NBA championships between 2015 and 2022 and along the way earning their “Splash Brothers” nickname.
It includes being the only NBA backcourt to go to five consecutive All-Star games together and reach the NBA Finals in each of those five seasons.
“The emotion of it is always the hardest part because you’ve built such equity and experience and trust,” Curry said. “Me, him and Draymond (Green), obviously KD (Kevin Durant) for those three years he was here, Andre (Iguodala), Shaun (Livingston), Andrew Bogut. You could go down the list. David Lee is another one of the guys that we won championships with. We built chemistry over the course of many, many years playing together.”
When Thompson made his first appearance as an opponent on Nov. 12 at Chase Center, the Warriors assembled an elaborate pregame ceremony that began the moment Thompson stepped off the bus and ended with a prolonged standing ovation before tipoff.
“It’s kind of unheard of in the history of basketball what we were able to do,” Curry said.
Curry waited until the end of the game – after leading the Warriors to a 120-117 victory – to share an embrace with Thompson. Though they have completely different lifestyles, with Klay single and Steph a married father of four, their collaboration on the court was about as harmonious as possible.
There might be no better example than what happened at United Center in Chicago on the night of Oct. 29, 2018. Klay was sizzling. He scored 52 points in 27 minutes. With his 12th 3-pointer, he was within one of tying Steph’s single-game record. With 7:12 left in the third quarter, Thompson drained his 13th triple, tying his teammate. Curry assisted on the play and jumped for joy when the ball splashed through the net.
And when Klay drained his 14th 3-ball to take sole possession of the record, Steph expressed visible elation, not so much because his record was falling but because it was going to his partner.