Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Stephen Curry has lost his touch at the wrong time — again.

Inside this gym that is a half-hour away from Oracle Arena, where he’s shooting a Degree Men deodorant commercial that will stink if he can’t hit this particular shot, the NBA’s back-to-back MVP has gone cold. The scene they’re going for is vintage Curry: release from nearly 35 feet out on the left side, followed by the spin, grin and walk-off move that we saw from the Golden State Warriors star so many times last season, and … swish.

But after four failed attempts, including an airball that might have left the production crew of nearly 50 wondering if the body double had been the one firing away, Curry makes it clear that — failed title defense be darned — his sense of humor remains intact.

"I hope y’all got a lot of film in there," he says with a laugh before finally burying the fifth attempt.

After the way last season ended, Curry has never been more ready for a re-shoot.

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From here until the end of his Hall of Fame-bound career, the piece of film that likely will haunt him most is the NBA Finals Game 7 loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Say what you will about all of the factors that weren’t in their favor — Curry’s right knee injury that slowed him until the end, the Andrew Bogut absence in the last two games because of a knee injury, the Draymond Green suspension in Game 5 that led to a series-turning loss — the championship was theirs for the taking again.

The fact that Curry missed 13 of 19 shots, including 10 of 14 from three-point range, when it mattered most only made the offseason worse. He finished with 17 points, two assists and four turnovers in the finale.

"I still haven’t gotten over Game 7," Curry told USA TODAY Sports during a break in the shoot. "That’s something that will stay with me pretty much forever, for good and bad reasons. Obviously you hated the feeling, but it’s also a motivator to come back even stronger and try not to have that feeling again.

"I’m at that point now where I can try to fuel any kind of terrible nightmares or thoughts about Game 7 into motivation for how I’m going to prepare myself for this year."

And therein lies the saving grace for Curry and the new-look Warriors: they’ll be the cause of night terrors for the rest of the NBA soon enough.

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Durant the savior?

If there were a cure for this kind of hoops hangover, the arrival of Kevin Durant should have been it. Less than two weeks after the Game 7 loss, not long after Curry and a band of other Warriors players, coaches and executives recruited the former Oklahoma City Thunder star in a Hamptons mansion, the Warriors got the word that the biggest fish in the free agency was coming their way. But Curry’s recovery was far too complicated for that to be the quick fix.

Those first few days were the roughest of them all, he admits, especially for someone who has always taken such pride in not letting his work life affect him at home. The Cavs had made history at Oracle Arena, becoming the first team in league history to recover from a 3-1 Finals deficit to win it all while winning two of the final three games on the road. LeBron James, who many believed had lost his unofficial title as the game’s best player to Curry before he re-seized that status, had celebrated in their halls as if he owned the place.

Even the smiles of Curry’s two young daughters, Riley and Ryan, and the support of his wife, Ayesha, couldn’t soothe that initial sting. Ditto for the golf outings with President Obama, the late-night talk-show appearances and the annual trip to China with Under Armour that were to come.

"Starting with that night (of Game 7), it kind of was like a surreal feeling at home, kind of like, ‘What just happened?’ because we were so confident we could get it done," Curry said. "Human nature kind of took in, where I was a little down — kind of naturally. But I was able to kind of just get away, go on vacation with the family (in Hawaii), get in front of the next generation at a couple (basketball) camps, still be around the game but not be depressed at all and understand we’re playing for the Finals and hopefully get another chance at it next year."

In a way, it’s apropos that the Warriors lost the what-if way. A year before, it was the Cavs who were left with questions regarding injuries: What if Kyrie Irving hadn’t broken his kneecap in Game 1, or if Kevin Love’s dislocated shoulder hadn’t ended his season in the first round against the Boston Celtics? This time, it was the Warriors’ turn to wonder what might have been.

Brandon Payne, Curry’s personal trainer who is based in his hometown of Charlotte but trains with him in the San Francisco Bay Area, had a front-row seat.

"The first day I saw him after (Game 7), we both just had a moment of, 'Well that really sucked,' " Payne said. "But after that, we haven’t really talked about it. We just moved forward.

"It’s one of those things where we know it happened, right? We don’t have to (watch the tape). We know what happened, and we have a pretty good handle on why it happened. We’ll just focus on getting him ready for 82 games (next season)."

But not before Curry would rest in a way that spoke volumes about his health.

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Resting up

While fellow Warriors Durant, Klay Thompson and Green had little turnaround time, meeting at Team USA camp in mid-July in Las Vegas and playing together through their gold-medal performance at the Rio Olympics on Aug. 21, Curry would go five weeks without training. His health, more than anything, was the reason he didn’t take part in the Games.

The medial collateral ligament sprain he suffered in the first round against the Houston Rockets was never bad enough to warrant surgery, sidelining him for 10 days and four playoff games in all. But it never truly healed either.

There was a minor right shoulder problem to let heal too, one that he made light of during the Finals when it was reported that he would need surgery but caused strength issues because of inflammation (it did not require surgery). And while Curry is hesitant to discuss the part his health played in any great detail, Payne’s perspective says it all.

"As bad as I wanted it to be him (in the Finals), it wasn’t him," said Payne, who has worked with Curry since 2011 and spent much of the late summer leading two-a-day workouts with Curry six times a week while living in the Bay Area. "We don’t like to make excuses, and we’re not going to make excuses because all that matters is what happens in the 48 minutes when you’re on the floor. (But) I wish it was the other version of him, the version that we saw for 82 games."

The next best thing, as they see it, would be to shoot the whole thing all over again with a different ending this time.

"We were deemed the latest and greatest, the untouchable team," said Curry, who posted career highs in scoring (a league-leading 30.1 points per game), three pointers (402), rebounds (5.4 per game) and steals (2.1 per game) during the Warriors’ 73-win regular season. "We didn’t have that mentality. We had that confidence that we could win every game, but it wasn’t like we could be invincible and just show up and win. (Losing) just reminds you that to win a championship, it takes a lot of good bounces. It takes just a lot of mental and physical focus and endurance. But it’s not guaranteed, so that was all it reminded me (of). It made me appreciate the year before, and hopefully made me appreciate the next journey."

Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.