Earlier this week, we talked about the odds that Stephen Curry would rest for the Indiana game. Turns out, it’s a good thing he didn’t as the Warriors pulled off a 2-point win. As DubsTalk Live host Grant Liffman said on the postgame show, it was “not a pretty game”, and despite a lot of turnovers and some tough misses in-rhythm from the three, the Dubs needed every single one of Steph’s 26 to get that one done.

Curry now sits 1 three-pointer away from tying Ray Allen’s all-time regular season three-pointers-made record, and would break it with 2 in his next game. Fortunately for Warriors fans, we may not have to wait very long, as the game in Indiana is the first leg of a back-to-back.

The next leg is familiar territory for the Warriors star, somewhere that some would say he put the league on notice about 8 years ago: Madison Square Garden, New York City’s basketball mecca.

The Garden is a storied arena. Three of the greatest and most influential players of all time have had high scoring games where they put up a signature performance of 50 or more: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Steph Curry. Others, of course, have had 50-pointers in MSG, but these are the three highest scorers there for a single game.

In 2013, against the Knicks who were a solid playoff team at the time, a young, pre-MVP Curry put the NBA on notice that he was coming for them with a 54-point, 11-three performance in a loss. It would take two more seasons for the Dubs to win their first championship, suffering a few rough series against the Clippers before that, but a lot of people mark this game at the Garden as the catapult that sent Curry into the all-star conversation.

It was just history from there.

This is an excellent closure of the cycle as Curry officially moves on from the “greatest shooter” chase and into the “greatest player” chase. It’s obvious that Steph is the best point guard of all time, and he even has a case to be a top-10 player ever (especially if he’s crowned MVP once again this season). His impact on the game and the way he’s warped the way the NBA plays the game is unmatched.

It’s also a relief that we’re going to get this over with sooner rather than later. Curry has had a rough last few games as the pressure of getting to the record begins to amount. Even before the “slump” began, Curry was getting a TON of attention and the Warriors could only capitalize on it some of the nights they played.

With the record finally having Curry’s name next to it, we should see a return to the more disciplined style of play that makes the Warriors heavyweight contenders and makes Steph the MVP. The fact that teams are selling out to try and stop him is significant enough, but when he’s so close to tangible history, the guys around him are so supportive that they want to make sure he gets there, and doesn’t come up short at their expense.

Thankfully, the Warriors have a little breathing room in the standings as they keep the 2nd seed in the West behind the Phoenix Suns. Steph Curry’s closure of the all-time regular-season three-point record should, with any luck, open up a new chapter of the team’s season so they can shift focus back towards this season’s (and Steph Curry’s) ultimate goal: Another NBA championship.

(Photo credit: Mike Stobe / Getty Images)