Bogut says Curry tries to 'destroy the other team's soul'

Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut knows Steph Curry's cunning tactics so well by now, he can pretty much predict his performance - including the way he crushes his rivals' spirits.

Ahead of Saturday's 112-109 victory over the Toronto Raptors, where Curry sank 44 points on 24 shots, Bogut said the Warriors have earned their 21-0 record by taking advantage of their "spurts."

"It's usually a two- or three-minute spurt," Bogut said, according to James Herbert of CBS Sports. "It's not like Steph's dribbling down and shooting parking-lot threes all game. He can sense when it's (time), he'll move the ball early on usually, he'll find a sense that he can break the game, just destroy the other team's soul and that's what he goes for. Same as Klay (Thompson)."

While the Warriors struggled to open things up at the Air Canada Center due to an amazing performance by Kyle Lowry - who finished with a career high of 41 points - Curry sunk nine 3-pointers directly into the net and the Raptors' morale, including two to keep the lead late in the fourth quarter.

"We know there's going to be a period of the game when (Curry and Thompson) go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," Bogut said. "So if we're close with a team and we're not playing that well or it's a three-point game, it's a five-point game, we tie it up, we know we're going to have one of those spurts."

Bogut said he's not surprised the Chef is not only in the running to earn the MVP title again, but somehow Most Improved Player honors as well, after observing him in the preseason.

"In camp, it's kind of hard to tell what's going to happen," Bogut said. "But there was more of a calm about him. And most of the guys in the locker room. Once you win that first championship, people say, ‘Oh, you've got the pressure on you to win it again.' You look at it the other way, where we've got our championship. The pressure's on the Clippers and the Grizzlies and those teams that have been together for five or six years, they're supposed to be championship rosters. We've kind of got a free roll at it. That's kind of been our mentality, with Steph and a lot of guys on the team. This is a free roll for us."