Stephen Curry’s 62-point performance in the Golden State Warriors’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers was not only the highest scoring game of his career so far, but it also put him alongside some elite company.
Specifically, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who was also known as one of the greatest scorers the NBA has ever seen.
Curry, who shot 18-of-31 from the field and 8-of-16 from beyond the arc while adding five rebounds and four assists, scored exactly 31 points in the first half and second half to give him 62 for the night. That made him the only player since the 1996-1997 season to score more than 30 points in each half of a game, per ESPN Stats and Info.
Stephen Curry is the only player in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97) to score over 30 points in each half of a game.
The only other player with 30 points in each half of a game in that span was Kobe Bryant on Dec. 20, 2005. pic.twitter.com/7exdRSDsMi
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 4, 2021
The only other player who came close to that mark was Bryant, who scored 32 points in the first half and had 30 in the third quarter before sitting out the fourth in a Dec. 20, 2005 game. That also happened to be the time when the five-time champion outscored the entire Dallas Mavericks team by himself, 62-61, after three quarters in a blowout Lakers win.
Curry is the first player to drop more than 30 points in each half of a game since “Pistol” Pete Maravich, who pulled off the feat on Feb. 25, 1977, back when he was playing for the New Orleans Jazz.
Aside from writing his name into the record books and placing himself alongside elite scorers like Bryant and Maravich, Curry’s 62-point night also gave the Warriors a win, their third of the season, while also silencing his doubters. It has been a bumpy start to this season for Curry and the Dubs, but this looked like a vintage version of the star, and the team's 3-3 record certainly doesn't look too bad given the circumstances.
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