Winning the NBA championship is really, really hard.
The Warriors captured three titles in a four-year span, going back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.
Golden State fell short of the three-peat, which was largely the result of not being close to full strength in the NBA Finals against the Raptors.
The Warriors dealt with a lot of adversity all season -- both on and off the court. And Steph Curry recently explained to Adam Caparell of Complex Sports just how challenging the 2018-19 campaign was for the Dubs:
This year was 10 times harder, physically and emotionally for sure. All the tough blows we were dealt on the way with injuries, you got three guys getting pretty significant injuries throughout the course of the playoff series, they were important guys and I would answer that question by saying I'm even more proud of how we handled it and how we fought to the end this year.
There's really no reason other than our sheer fighting ability and competitiveness that we were within a possession to get to Game 7. It says a lot about who we are as a team and what we've been through. It sucks to lose and we'll be thinking about for a long time, but we battled and gave ourselves a sliver of hope until the end to get the job done.
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DeMarcus Cousins tore his left quad in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Clippers.
Kevin Durant sustained a significant calf strain in Game 5 of their second-round series against the Rockets and then ruptured his right Achilles in Game 5 against Toronto.
Klay Thompson rolled his ankle in Game 6 against the Clippers, strained his left hamstring in Game 2 in Toronto (and missed Game 3) and then tore his left ACL in Game 6 of the Finals.
Kevon Looney suffered a non-displaced first costal cartilage fracture on the right side of his chest during Game 2 in Toronto, missed Game 3 after being ruled out the remainder of the season and ultimately returned for Games 4 through 6.
Curry rolled his ankle in Game 6 against the Clippers and dislocated his left middle finger in Game 2 against the Rockets.
Sheesh.
Sometimes, the injury bug wins and there's nothing you can do about it.
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"The night after we lost Game 6, we had the entire team at the house and we were drinking some wine and having some fun, talking about the crazy year that we had and it was nothing like somber or down about any of it," Curry said. "It was more like a celebration of just how special this journey has been and knowing that it's not over yet.
"So I think in turn having people that support you, having your family, and you getting to share them it definitely helps keep things into perspective and not make it more tough to lose than it already is."
Did you catch that, Warriors fans? Curry said the journey's "not over yet."
