DeMarcus Cousins endured a "rough go" Wednesday as the Warriors lost Game 3 of the NBA Finals, but Stephen Curry offered encouragement to his teammate.
Cousins, who has seen his first season in Oakland dogged by injury, played a key role in Game 2 as the Warriors stole a win on the road.
But with Golden State ravaged by injuries back at Oracle Arena, Cousins failed to produce a repeat performance, playing just 19 minutes in which time he scored just four points and had three rebounds and two assists.
Yet Curry was keen to keep his teammate's confidence high.
"There's nothing different he should do, just continue to play with confidence," Curry told reporters of the center after his team fell, 123-109.
"It was a rough go in terms of when he had the ball in his hands. There were some calls that were a little iffy, honestly, in terms of him being aggressive in the paint and not being able to finish for a lot of different reasons.
@sergeibaka protects the paint with 6 BLOCKS to help the @Raptors go up 2-1! #WeTheNorth #NBAFinals
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"Defensively, it's all five guys being on a string, and that's something we pride ourselves on – one guy, two guys aren't going to do the job by themselves and we can help cover each other.
"So like any great player, if you have a rough game, that resiliency to bounce back and the confidence to know that you can still go out there and impact the game, that's something that he'll bring and we all will follow suit for sure."
The Warriors have scored 109 points in each game of the Finals so far, and Curry believes it is their defense that needs work.
"We were a little rushed early, but we were just trying to create good offense," he said. "I think this is the third game in a row we scored 109.
"It's just a matter of our defense and we can't fall into the trap of thinking offense alone is going to win us another championship or letting that end of the floor affect our defense.
"That will be the biggest adjustment for us Game 4 all across the board."