{"id":755734,"date":"2026-06-08T12:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/755734\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T12:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:48:14","slug":"i-blacked-out-kevin-love-recalls-his-legendary-stop-on-steph-curry-in-game-7-of-2016-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/755734\/","title":{"rendered":"“I blacked out” – Kevin Love recalls his legendary stop on Steph Curry in Game 7 of 2016 NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

At his peak, Kevin Love<\/a> was one of the most dominant players in the NBA. A 6’10” power forward who had a wide frame, a solid base and a sweet shooting stroke, Love became a five-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA team member and a rebounding champion. Simply put, he was a lot of things, but one thing he most definitely wasn’t was a stout defender.<\/p>\n

Every team in the NBA knew this, including the Golden State Warriors<\/a>. And in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, with the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> clinging on to a three-point lead and the Warriors having possession, the Warriors knew who they wanted superstar Steph Curry<\/a> to attack: Love\u200b.<\/p>\n

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Love doesn’t remember much<\/p>\n

The 2015-16 campaign was a Curry masterpiece. After winning the MVP trophy in 2015, he kept his foot on the gas pedal and completed a season for the ages. He led the NBA in points (30.1) \u00a0and steals (2.1), earning All-Star and All-NBA First Team honors. He also became the league’s first unanimous MVP winner\u200b<\/p>\n

So at the time, there was no player more feared than Curry. And unfortunately for the Cavs, no player on their roster was less equipped to defend him one-on-one than Love. He actually doesn’t remember how he managed to stay in front of the Warriors’ superstar; it only matters that he did.<\/p>\n

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“I tell people all the time, one, I blacked out,” Love said<\/a> in a talk with his fellow 2016 champion, Richard Jefferson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“You know how many times we actually went over this play? We were switching one through five. Here comes the pin-down action. Switch over on Draymond. Switch on Steph. Then watch. Steph gives up the ball. I’m supposed to deny,” he added.\u200b<\/p>\n

Related: “I seen Hasidic Jews break dancing with Black kids”- Fat Joe says the NY Knicks’ title run has been the most unifying moment in the city since 9\/11<\/a><\/p>\n

A critical mistake<\/p>\n

Curry was lights out from deep during that season, making an NBA record 402 3-pointers. It didn’t matter the distance. If he saw the rim, he never hesitated to take the shot, and, given that he hit them at 45.4 percent, every attempt was a high-percentage shot. However, on that play, as Curry received the ball back from Draymond Green<\/a>, Love found himself too far from the MVP, which was a critical mistake.<\/p>\n

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Fortunately, Curry hesitated, allowing Love to recover.<\/p>\n

“They don\u2019t realize it was, in some ways, a bad defensive play in terms of our concepts and what we were trying to get done. I was supposed to deny that ball back,” Love shared<\/a> in a separate interview. “Steph Curry was never supposed to get that ball back.”<\/p>\n

Regardless of how accomplished he was, Love was never one to toot his own horn. And even though many consider that defensive stop to rank up there with the likes of LeBron James<\/a>‘ chasedown block of Andre Iguodala<\/a>‘s layup in that same game, he doesn’t agree with the sentiment.<\/p>\n

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“I’m like, I just forced him into a tough shot. People want to say it was this great stop, but actually, I was just being myself. I was just like, I have to stay down. I have to force him into a tough shot. At the very least, I have to make him put it on the floor and maybe break the paint,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Love can have his opinion about that play, but there’s no denying the importance of that stop. Left on an island against one of the greatest offensive weapons in NBA history with the game and the title at stake, the Cavs needed one stop, and they got it from an unlikely source.<\/p>\n

Related: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very difficult for him\u201d – Chris Bosh warned Kevin Love about joining LeBron James in Cleveland<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At his peak, Kevin Love was one of the most dominant players in the NBA. A 6’10” power…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2994,5500,7,193,200,164,1678,185,6,1912,932],"class_list":["post-755734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-2016-nba-finals","tag-andre-iguodala","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-draymond-green","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-kevin-love","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-richard-jefferson","tag-steph-curry"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116714569938754547","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}