Curry’s Recent Dominance is Second to None
It’s a pretty cool thing when beating the best team in the Eastern Conference on the road is not on the top of the list of the most notable takeaways from a game.
Stephen Curry had 49 of the Warriors’ 107 points in their victory in Philadelphia over the 76ers on Monday. When the two-time MVP crossed his jersey number in scoring on the night, he became the first player age-33 or older with 11 consecutive games of 30+ points in NBA history. Curry had tied Kobe Bryant as the only players to have double-digit games with 30 or more at age-33 or older with his 47-point outburst in Golden State’s loss in Boston on Saturday.
Monday night was also Curry’s fourth time in his last five outings scoring 40 or more points. This achievement also pushed him over Bryant, Michael Jordan and every other player to have taken the floor in the NBA age-33 or older, as it also gave him his fifth 40-point game in the month of April, the most in a month for any player in league history in that same age range. And as a reminder, Monday’s game took place on April 19, and the Warriors still have five more games this month.
If he continues to average more than 40 points a contest this month – he is averaging 40.8 points per game on 55% from the field and 50% from distance after the victory over the Sixers – Curry would join James Harden, Elgin Baylor, Bryant and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in the history of the league to average 40+ points a game in any one month.
In his last five games, Curry also hit 10 threes on April 12 against Denver, 11 threes on April 14 in Oklahoma City, 11 triples in Boston on Saturday and 10 in Philadelphia on Monday, while only making four shots from distance in last Thursday’s win in Cleveland. These four games with 10 or more threes for Curry are more than any other player in NBA history has had over their entire career – with the exception of his backcourt mate Klay Thompson, who has five career games with 10+ threes. In these four games, he has not just been chucking up shots – he went 42-for-71 from distance, good for 59% shooting.
Golden State’s lead guard also had 11 triples on Feb. 2 in Dallas and 10 on Feb. 11 in Orlando, meaning he has six total games with 10+ threes this season, more than anybody, including Thompson, has had over their entire career. It ties his own career-high of six games with 10 or more triples, which he also did in 2018-19.
And if you thought we were done, we aren’t. Curry’s 11 consecutive games of more than 30 points gave him the longest streak for a Warrior of any age since Chamberlain in 1964, who Curry recently passed as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer against the Nuggets last Monday. To place this in further context, Chamberlain averaged 37.6, 38.4, 50.4, 44.8, 36.9 and 34.7 points per game in each respective season from 1959-60 to 1964-65.
It really makes no sense that Curry is 33 years old and playing as well as he did when he was 27 and 28 years of age in the only unanimous MVP season in NBA history in 2015-16. He might even be better.
Curry was always in the conversation for the best point guard of all-time, and it isn’t for me or you to decide who gets that distinction. But I don’t know any “one” who can do what he is doing right now. And I know that because no player ever has done what he is now doing.