Stephen Curry willed his team to a much-needed victory again on Friday night, dropping 40 points on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Golden State Warriors' hard-fought 106-101 victory. He not only scored at least 40 points for the second game in a row, but dominated the fourth quarter in truly singular fashion just like he did against the Sacramento Kings, too.
Curry had 18 points in the final stanza, hitting a game-tying three-pointer, racing out for a go-ahead layup and banging another triple on successive possessions as the game hung in the balance. He managed a pair of stops on Donovan Mitchell during that defining stretch of crunch-time, too, stymying Cleveland's superstar twice while being intentionally targeted in pick-and-roll.
After the game, Steve Kerr hesitated to call Curry's current level of play the best of his career, saying he's certainly “never been better.” While the 34-year-old doesn't quite agree, Curry nevertheless admitted just how easy the game is coming to him in the season's early going.
“I wouldn't say it's the best I've felt, like physically I'm just trying to maintain the rhythm and peak kind of performance that I've had for awhile now. the numbers obviously look good; I wanna keep that goin'. But I just have a lot of confidence out there that I can do kind of whatever I want, and have fun playing the game.”
Curry is averaging 33.2 points per game, a career-high. He's at 44.0% accuracy on a whopping 12.2 three-point attempts per game, combining that laughable blend of volume and efficiency with 80% shooting around the rim, a number normally reserved for the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Curry's scorching 69.5 true shooting percentage, per NBA.com/stats, is easily best in the league among high-usage players.
Following up his first Finals MVP with the best start of his career, it really does seem like Curry can “do whatever” he wants on the floor. Still, he's holding out hope the 5-7 Warriors can get some wins going forward without the necessity of such epic individual performances.
“Considering our struggles early and how we're trying to get over the hump as a team, it's nice to know you can kind of will your way into big games like that to help us get some solid momentum,” Curry said. “We'll see how long it lasts.”
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