When you think of the most clutch performers in and around the NBA, there are a handful of names that come to mind. But how far down the list would you have to go until you name Golden State Warriors icon Stephen Curry?

There's Damian Lillard, the watchmaker who crafted Dame Time and owner of not one, but two series-clinching game-winners. There's Kyrie Irving, whose one lone shot in Stephen Curry's grill back in the 2016 NBA Finals immortalized him in crunch time lore forever.

Battle-tested names like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Kevin Durant have all proven their mettle when the lights shine the brightest. So have some next-generation talents like Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Devin Booker.

Warriors fans have to admit that while everyone adores and respects Stephen Curry, he often gets overlooked when it comes to being considered clutch. But is that reputation against him even accurate?

Clutch Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry in the 2022 NBA Playoffs: King of the 4th quarter

If you're looking at this current postseason, that take would seem absolutely ridiculous. Stephen Curry has been the best fourth-quarter performer in these entire 2022 playoffs and it's not particularly close.

Among the 158 players who have played at least four games in this current postseason, Steph Curry ranks first out of 158 in fourth-quarter scoring. He's averaged an astonishing 9.4 points in the final frame, basically a full point higher than the next players in Jayson Tatum (8.5), Ja Morant (8.4), and Chris Paul (8.0). He has shot a scorching-hot 53.8% from the field and 41.9% from the 3-point line in the process.

What's even more impressive is that he's doing it in the fewest amount of minutes relative to the rest of the top fourth-quarter scorers. The Warriors star is the only player among the top 15 fourth-quarter scorers this postseason to play under eight fourth-quarter minutes per game, clocking in at just 7.4 minutes per contest. Steph Curry is doing much more than everybody in much less time than anyone else thus far.

He has not just padding his stats early in the quarter or during lopsided affairs either. Curry also ranks as the highest scorer in the postseason during clutch situations, which is defined as the game being within five points or less with under five minutes left to play. His 6.8 points per game through six different clutch games the Warriors have played in is tops in the NBA.

The spectacle of Stephen Curry works against him

So far in these playoffs, Stephen Curry has come up clutch. While the numbers do point toward his fourth-quarter prowess thus far, it's clearly a small sample size against just two opponents in the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies.

But even a quick glance at his playoff numbers for his career doesn't exactly show any steep decline. He's still a 26.5 point-per-game scorer in well over a hundred postseason games while shooting at 45% from the field and a shade under 40% from the 3-point line. He's maintaining his shooting efficiency while taking over 10 triples per game at that.

Even if you check his shooting splits during fourth quarters all throughout the Warriors' NBA Finals runs, you'll see no harsh drop in Steph Curry's efficiency numbers

So what's the problem? Perhaps it's how much we love to watch Stephen Curry go on impossibly hot scoring binges from downtown that has heightened our expectations from the Warriors star.

Polarizing NBA personality Bill Simmons recently had a request for Stephen Curry on his B.S. podcast ahead of the Warriors' Game 6 series-clincher against the Grizzlies which basically sums up the clutch conundrum working against Curry.

Via The Bill Simmons podcast:

“Can we have a great Steph Curry playoff game, please? Can we have a great one? Can we have like a Hardwood Classics? The most threes he's hit in a game is five. He's done that three times. … Totally fine. But what about like, the ass-kicking, awesome Steph Curry ‘Oh my god, is he going to get 15 threes in this game?' Steph Curry. Where's that guy?”

Simmons, despite some (accurate) blowback from his podcast guests claiming Curry has actually been playing well, wanted to see more from Steph.

This while Curry has already been the best late-game scorer thus far, averaging 26.9 points per game and leading his team to the Western Conference Finals once again. This also while sharing some offensive load with playoff breakout star and Warriors fan favorite Jordan Poole. But, of course, with Stephen Curry we need to see some fireworks, right?

Are our expectations unreasonably high?

A handful of us fans have to admit it, we're all at least a bit guilty of asking too much from Stephen Curry as well. The Golden State Warriors point guard is the lone NBA superstar whose game is consumed by onlookers in a way that most closely resembles a predetermined spectacle rather than some unexpected outcome.

We tune in to watch Stephen Curry drain mind-bending 3s and expect an eruption every single night in an incendiary fashion that no other superstar can emulate. Five treys, like Simmons asserted he has done rather matter-of-factly rather than impressively, is not enough. Curry one-upped himself after that in that Game 6 with six triples, but that hardly registers on the Steph Curry excitement scale at this point.

Part of what makes Stephen Curry so likable is that he isn't physically dominant nor does he own limbs that go on forever. He can do something so much better than anyone in NBA history that isn't supposed to be easy. He just makes it seem that way.

That's why anything short of hitting a handful of ridiculous 3s in closing moments of games isn't going to be enough to sway onlookers that Curry comes up big when the Warriors need him. He makes us all forget that it's much harder to assert his dominant skill during crunch time as compared to someone like Giannis or LeBron bullying their way to the basket.

Unfair or not, Stephen Curry isn't considered one of the best clutch performers in the NBA. But at the end of the day, his rings and beloved reputation will ultimately matter more.