So it looks like Stephen Curry is still a legendary basketball player. After starting the season totally cold by his standards while the Warriors stumbled on their way to the league’s worst offensive ranking, Curry found his stock of old fireworks and fired them all at once on Sunday, reaching his career record 62 points for become the second oldest player in history to score at least 60 points – second only to Kobe Bryant, who hung 60 in Jazz in his last career game at 37.
In addition, Curry did it in just 36 minutes, rejoining Kobe as the only players in history to score at least 62 points in 36 minutes or less. Kobe did this in December 2005, when he crashed 62 on the Mavericks in just 33 minutes.
By the way, Golden State defeated the Blazers on Sunday, 137-122, to improve their record to 3-3. But nobody cares about that. It was Curry’s night. Another one in a historical career full of theatrical explosions. If you’re only here for the highlights, here they are.
Normally, a Curry performance like this would not require much more analysis than simply appreciating greatness. It’s kind of an old hat now. By his standards, he honestly wasn’t that good – “just” 8 out of 16 out of three.
But in this case, there were, and are, some important layers of Curry’s night that could define the rest of the Golden State season. First, he gave 31 pictures. This may sound like a number that is only justified when you’re rolling, but Curry has to be aggressive like that every night. Whether it’s more than 30 shots when the defense is falling in pick-and-roll or playing with it more directly, or 20 shots when two or three guys arrest him everywhere he turns, he has to attack to score for that team of limited offensive weapons and collective shooting even more limited, to compete.
As a by-product of Curry’s aggression on Sunday, he hit the free-throw line with the highest record of his career 19 times, sinking 18. Give credit to Steve Kerr: he’s making the adjustment early in the season from the complicated move of ball and player based system in which he drove with a great team of all times for a more simplified strategy. For lack of a better explanation, this strategy is to give Curry the damn ball.
The Warriors did this on Sunday, doing more pick-and-roll led by Curry and putting their best player in an attack position with the ball in their hands, instead of putting so much emphasis on their movement outside the ball. “We want to do this all the time,” said Kerr of putting Curry in a position to attack down the hill. This is a departure from the traditional Kerr ethos. It is what is needed.
Warriors no longer have multiple scoring threats that can mitigate the defensive attention that Curry receives off the ball. He’s understanding everything now. The defenders will take everything from the ball and prevent preventively the actions that previously released Curry. In addition, they don’t have the passers-by that they used to have.
That part is never commented on, but Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant, Shaun Livingston, these guys had an almost telepathic relationship with Curry, completely in tune with his seemingly erratic movement and relocations in fractions of a second. You don’t have much time to make perfect passes when defenders are tracking Curry as a three-shot fugitive. Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre are not going to do instant readings like this. It is not what they do. It helps immensely to have Draymond Green back, but even with his fleeting acumen, he is not a threat to score. Curry has to carry a huge load of creating games again.
Curry also has some responsibility for, up to this point, not playing like that every night. His shot did not fall, and in part this can be attributed to a somewhat passive approach, or at least a very deferential approach to the system in the beginning. It was more like this: I’m the best player on the pitch, and a bad shot for me, for the most part, is still a better option than a good shot for anyone else on my team.
No, he will not score 62 points every night. But in terms of attacking all night, hunting your shot and letting it fly or letting the secondary attack drain from the attention it attracts, it’s all his fault. He knows that. I feel silly to question if Curry was still the type of player who could consistently create blows like he did on Sunday night, if he could still dive into his bag of pre-Durant magic every night.
He clearly still has that kind of game at 32, but this was, in fact, a game. And the Blazers are not exactly the Bad Boys. A guy like Curry watching Enes Kanter falling on the pick-and-roll cover is like a shark sniffing at decomposing bodies. We’ll see if Curry can or will continue with this approach throughout the season. Because this is what is necessary for the Warriors to compete for a place in the playoffs. Sunday night was a fun reminder that Stephen Curry is still Stephen Curry, but it will be a lot more fun if he stays that way for a long time.