It's just one game. Stephen Curry and the Warriors kept saying it over and over.

One game. One bad game, one game of Curry making five of 23 attempts from the field, one game of shooting 2-for-15 on 3-pointers, one historically bad game for the MVP who has ascended into the debate of the greatest shooters ever. But that's it. Just Sunday night at Oracle Arena.

Except that it's not.

Curry is having an off couple weeks with his shot, not merely a forgettable Game 2 as a large part of the 95-93 overtime loss to the Cavaliers that will never be forgotten around here if the Warriors don't respond to the challenge of a 1-1 Finals heading to Cleveland. This is a shooting slump at the worst possible time, not a singular grimacing moment.

He was 7-for-18 in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in Houston, the night of the ugly crash landing in the second quarter.

He was 7-for-21 in Game 5 while still sore and wearing a shooting sleeve part of the time as the Warriors reached the Finals for the first time in 40 years.

Following the extended rest of seven days off after Golden State and Cleveland both quickly wrapped up their respective series, Curry looked fresh in the opener of the championship series on Thursday, making 10 of 20 shots and scoring a team-high 26 points as the Warriors won in overtime.

Then: Sunday. Long faces. Ominous music. The rare sight of Curry looking lost.

The 26.1 effective field-goal percentage -- adjusted to give extra weight to a 3-point shot -- was his worst showing in 36 career playoff games, of all 2014-15, and any game when he took at least 15 shots. Just a slow night and the Warriors are up 2-0 and raising the possibility they had just played at Oracle for the last time this season, before jetting to Cleveland for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday. This was worse than a slow night.

Stephen Curry set an NBA Finals mark for most missed three-pointers in a single game (13).
Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images

"No, it didn't feel right, but there is no time to really worry about that," Curry said. "You've got to keep shooting and try to figure it out. I don't expect to shoot like this. I've got to play better, find better shots and be more in a rhythm throughout the course of the game for us to really assert ourselves as a team. Klay [Thompson] did a great job of keeping us in it all night when our offense was struggling and we still had a chance to win. So just got to play better, move past this game, and keep the confidence."

Didn't feel right?

"Shots I normally make I knew as soon as they left my hand that they were off," he said. "That doesn't usually happen. Mechanically, I don't know if there is an explanation for it. Just didn't have a rhythm and didn't find one the whole game. I'm not going to let one game kind of alter my confidence. I know as a team we're not going to let one team alter our belief that we're going to win the series. So nothing we can do about tonight. We've got to move on and be ready to play a good team that's ready to go home."

The problem was "just tonight," Curry said after dropping to 35.4 percent -- 29-for-82 -- the last four games.

"No, I'm not seeing anything [specifically wrong] like that," coach Steve Kerr said. "I mean, the guy's been phenomenal in the playoffs. So sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way, it doesn't go in. It's fine. You keep playing. I've seen it with everybody. I've seen it with Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan. It doesn't matter who you are. Nobody is immune from a tough night."

Curry made a key layup down the stretch to force overtime in Game 2.
Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images

If Curry lights up the Cleveland night on Tuesday and the Warriors win to move ahead in the best-of-seven series and reclaim home-court advantage, order is restored. Or at least if he makes shots and erases the memory of five assists against six turnovers in Game 2, even if Golden State looses, the Curry issue fades and the Warriors still have reason to feel confident if they trail in The Finals.

But if this goes on much longer, problems mount exponentially.

"It had everything to do with Delly," LeBron James said of Matthew Dellavedova, who replaced the injured Kyrie Irving as Cleveland's starting point guard. "He just kept a body on Steph. He made Steph work. He was spectacular, man, defensively. We needed everything from him. When Steph shoots the ball, you just automatically think it's going in because he shoots the ball so well. ... [Dellavedova] just did a great job. Just trying to make it tough on Steph. That's all you can do. You make it tough on him. You get a contest, and you live with the results, and I think Delly did that."

It was some Dellavedova, but it was a lot of Curry clearly being out of rhythm, long before Delly had a chance to wear on him. When it mattered most down the stretch, when the Warriors were in position to take a giant step toward their first title since 1975, Curry was 2-for-6 in the fourth quarter, including 1-for-4 on 3-pointers, and in overtime missed all four shots, two from behind the arc. Yes, it was a very bad night.

But it's not just one game.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.

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