Steph Curry vs Luka Doncic, An All-Time Playoff Matchup?
One comes from Charlotte, North Carolina. The other all the way across the world in Ljubljana, Slovenia. An old head up against a young one. Two of the greatest individual scorers, three-point shooters, and just all-around talents the league has ever seen.
Steph Curry and Luka Doncic will face off in the Western Conference Finals for a trip to the 2022 NBA Finals. This is looking to be a historic playoff matchup between two generational greats, a battle for the ages. We’ve already witnessed a few exceptional clashes between the stars in the regular season to back up this argument.
Steph Curry has been here before, plenty of times. This is his 6th trip to the Western Conference Finals since 2015. As for the young gun, Luka Doncic has championship experience over in Europe but this will be his first-ever trip to an NBA conference final since he joined the league in 2018. A lot is on the line for both players’ career resumes.
Everyone knows about the countless records broken and accomplishments by the greatest shooter to ever play the game. Here are just some of Steph Curry’s: NBA regular season record for made three-pointers (402), NBA record for most three-pointers made in a single playoffs (98; tied with Klay Thompson), 3x NBA champion, 2x NBA MVP, 8x All-Star. This list can go on and on forever. The legend has done it all during his career.
But the league is always growing through its young talent and Luka Doncic is a massive international name that’s leading the charge in that area. He’s the new face of the next generation of basketball.
Steph was 25 years old when he reached the postseason with the Warriors for the first time in 2013. He was 27 years old when he won his first championship with Golden State in 2015.
One can make a compelling argument that Luka is a bit ahead of where Curry was at when he was his age since this is already Doncic’s 3rd playoff appearance and his first appearance in the Western Conference Finals at only 23 years of age.
Back during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game media availability in February, Luka Doncić was asked to describe Curry with one word. "Unbelievable." When asked to expand on that, Luka Doncic went into even more detail: “Unbelievably amazing.”
Here were Steph Curry's thoughts after the Dallas Mavericks’ Game 7 win over the #1 seeded Phoenix Suns: "Obviously Luka's doing what he's doing, putting up crazy numbers. The way he finished out that series was pretty special."
It’s no mystery that the two players have a deep and profound admiration for one another as they recognize the impact both have had on this league during their respective time. Luka strives to be like Steph. Doncic wants all of Curry’s individual accolades and accomplishments to go along with the respect that the Golden State mogul receives throughout the league by players, coaches, and fans alike.
With all that being said, this series between Luka Doncic and Steph Curry will become one of the most remarkable duels the NBA has ever seen. Get the popcorn ready.
Follow Arden Cravalho on Twitter @a_cravalho.
(Photo credit: Glenn James/Getty Images)