OAKLAND — Stephen Curry does not often choose to speak for his teammates, or offer slogans for this massively scrutinized franchise, so when he does, and it’s on the eve of the playoffs, the words matter and the intent matters even more.

It happened minutes after the Warriors wrapped up the regular season on Wednesday, when Curry walked to the interview room in his jersey then offered a glimpse into the team’s mindset for another probable long run in the playoffs.

“We’re chasing something,” Curry said. “We’re not protecting anything this year.”

This, of course, is reference to the very different ways the Warriors faced the previous two postseasons, and yes, one way turned out to be superior than the other.

In 2015, they were upstarts and raced to their first championship in 40 years. Last season, they were the heralded and burdened defending champions and wore down at the end, losing in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to Cleveland.

The Warriors open the playoffs Sunday against Portland at Oracle Arena, and they once again begin this playoff run as the No. 1 overall seed and championship favorites — as they have been for all three of these seasons.

But you can understand why Curry, Draymond Green and the other team leaders are framing this as a lighter, looser experience than last spring and summer.

The Warriors are at their best when they play with joy, freedom and aggression, and they are maybe a little more vulnerable when things get tense and heavy.

They are also at their best when they can avoid injury or suspension — two things that hit them hard in the 2016 playoffs — but there is no way for the Warriors to prepare for that, other than to be at their top form both physically and mentally starting Sunday.

So they want to be the quasi-underdogs again, staring up at LeBron James and the defending champion Cavaliers, and the Warriors want to be the ones charging hardest on the last lap.

“In theory, we’re not the hunted,” Curry said Friday when I asked him to expand on his comment. “I mean, obviously we have the best record, but we’re not defending a championship.

“Really, there’s no pressure.”

Wait, there is definitely enormous pressure on the Warriors. They can’t talk themselves out of that — not after winning 67 games, after back-to-back NBA Finals matchups vs. Cleveland, after winning a record 73 last season and then signing Kevin Durant.

But the Warriors certainly are allowed to feel different about this season’s journey, to understand the responsibility of being the league’s marquee team and yet also the adrenaline spike of going after something they once had and then lost.

“At the at the end of the day you still have to get the same thing, whether you’re chasing it or protecting it,” Green said when I asked him about Curry’s comparison.

“I think it changes the hunger, though. You’re a little bit hungrier trying to get something or go get something back than you are when you got it …

“I think it makes you want it a little bit more. As opposed to … you take stuff for granted when you’ve got it. That’s just the world we live in. When you’re chasing after it, you don’t have it, you’re a little hungrier to go get it.”

Green expanded on the point: The Warriors kept pretty much the same team together from Year 1 to Year 2 of this run, then before this season made wholesale changes to the back-half of the roster.

They still have Steve Kerr coaching, of course, and Curry, Green, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and James Michael McAdoo from the 2015 championship roster … but that’s it.

“I think we’ve got, what, five guys on this team that have won championships? Six? [Note: It is six.]” Green said. “So it’s a completely different team. As opposed to last year you had 12 or 13 guys that had won championships.

“I think that changes everything.”

Just bringing in Durant — and shedding Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli to do it — altered who the Warriors are and how they think and play.

Then the Warriors added David West, Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee, Patrick McCaw and Matt Barnes, who all could have significant roles in the playoffs, and who are all chasing their first ring.

“I’ve never been a champion before, so… I’ve been on that chase for a while, you know?” Durant said on the “Warriors Plus Minus” podcast earlier this week. “But you can sense that everybody’s a little bit more relaxed …

“Almost feel like the underdog with so many people that want us to fail. We know we have a really good team. But it just feels like our are backs against the wall, everybody is watching us and wants to see us fail. And that’s fun.”

The Warriors want to embrace the fun this postseason, and the looseness, and the freedom of feeling like they have nothing much to lose, even though everybody else says they do.