With Curry, everything is possible. Speaking to reporters after the game, the coach had this to say about Curry: “A three-point shot is like a layup, a half court shot is like a three-point shot”. Congolese Serge Ibaka scored 15 points and blocked two shots for the Thunder. “Steph just, that’s what he does”.
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With the ball moving better among the reserves, the Warriors’ role players found better looks at the basket.
“That’s Steph and Klay and that’s what they do”, said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. But he said that “just like in golf, there are so many young phenoms in the game right now. With Steph, it’s actually true”.
The reigning MVP received an inbounds pass following a free throw, took a couple of dribbles past midcourt before launching a 13-meter shot that banked in at the buzzer. Unfortunately for the Magic, far from it. The Warriors continued their up-tempo assault of recent games, pushing the pacerepeatedly against the Magic and ultimately cracking open the game in the late third and early fourth quarters. “I swear I did. He hits that shot all the time”. Deadspin published a diatribe this morning about the fanboy bandwagon that follows him and the Warriors around our digital world. So for Curry, a half-court shot in a game is taken with confidence. As Andrew Bogut explained on Bill Simmons’ podcast on Wednesday, Kerr believed upon taking over as coach that if the Warriors could simply cut down on turnovers, they’d be a championship-caliber team.
That overcame the powerhouse Thunder duo of Russell Westbrook, who scored a game-high 44 points, and Kevin Durant, who added 29 points and 14 rebounds. They finished with 21 turnovers, but led by Curry, shot 60 percent from the field.
Apart from Curry’s performance, the other very encouraging sign for the Warriors was the all-around effort from their bench.
Again, we are just five games removed from the All-Star break, which roughly marks the midpoint of a season, and Curry is ALREADY about to break a record that he set through a full 82-game season. It’s a record that is nearly certain to be obliterated.
The Warriors (51-5), the quickest team to 50 wins in National Basketball Association history, also got 10 points and 11 rebounds from forward Draymond Green. Center Nikola Vucevic had 17 points and nine rebounds.
All the way across the country, the Warriors were mobbed by fans after Curry’s outburst. The Magic kept allowing Curry to hit 3 after 3, which quickly put the game out of reach.
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With his first three-pointer in the first quarter, Curry became the NBA’s all-time leader in consecutive games with a three-pointer made at 128.
