© Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Sometimes there’s not much you can say about Stephen Curry. His game mostly speaks for itself. But if there’s anyone you’d want to describe Curry’s brilliance, it’s clearly Mike Breen.
“Curry, way downtown. Bang! Steph Curry from just inside halfcourt!”
Good grief Steph pic.twitter.com/esbaGcEu77
— KNBR (@KNBR) February 7, 2021
It’s so familiar. And that’s the kind of, “Bang!” night it was for Curry.
57 points on 19-of-31 shooting, 11-of-19 from three, and 8-for-8 from the free throw line with five assists, two steals and two rebounds.
There have now been five 50-point games in the NBA this year. Curry owns two of them.
Normally, that would be all she wrote. Per Anthony Slater of The Athletic, in every game Curry has scored 45-plus points, the Warriors were 14-0. That changed on Saturday, as the Warriors lost 134-130 in Dallas, dropping to 12-11.
Warriors are 14-0 since 2015 when Steph Curry goes for 45+ points. He has 49, but they're down eight in Dallas with four minutes left.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 7, 2021
Yet again, there was no defense played in Dallas. Both teams had crossed the 100-point threshold by the end of the third quarter.
A game after Curry had 28 points in three quarters, leaving a red-hot Kelly Oubre to hit 40, Curry took it upon himself to cross the 40-point threshold with ease. In typical fashion, Curry had started 1-of-5.
It wasn’t just Curry. The Warriors were pedestrian as best early on, trailing Dallas 18-2 in the first quarter. But it seems like nothing that happens early matters much in NBA games, especially not Warriors games.
What really mattered was that Luka Doncic matched Curry’s absurdity with his own, putting up 42 points (12-of-23, 7-of-12 from 3-point, 11-of-14 from FT), 11 assists, 7 rebounds and a steal with 7 turnovers.
The Mavericks, who were the NBA’s worst 3-point shooting team entering this two-game series, matched the Warriors’ lights-out shooting from behind the arc.
Warriors from 3-point: 20-of-44 (44.4 percent)
Mavericks from 3-point: 21-of-47 (44.7 percent)
Doncic sealed the win, fittingly, with a seeming dagger 3-pointer with 43.4 seconds remaining… which shouldn’t have counted. The assist from Kristaps Porzingis to Doncic came after the ball landed out of bounds, but wasn’t called.
Curry, of course, followed that dagger up with a moonshot three, and his 11th of the game.
There was another questionable call that followed, a reach-in on Kent Bazemore which would have been a steal with 33.5 seconds remaining. The Warriors challenged, winning, and Curry responded with an and-one, cutting the deficit to 131-130 with less than 30 seconds remaining.
But with time ticking down, Doncic moved the ball to Maxi Kleber, who hit the real dagger three, giving Dallas a four-point cushion with 5.6 seconds remaining. A Damion Lee tip-in was inconsequential, as Doncic’s brilliance was enough to carry the Mavericks past Curry’s.
As Doncic described the feeling of going against Curry in his postgame interview:
“It was suffering. Every time he shot it I thought it was going in.”