Scoring title Curry’s to lose
Sharpshooter’s historic late surge helps him surpass Wizards’ Beal
SAN FRANCISCO — George Gervin arrived at the Louisiana Superdome for the Spurs’ regular-season finale against the New Orleans Jazz eyeing one number: 58.
It was April 9, 1978, and Denver guard David Thompson had just scored 73 points — then the most in NBA history by anyone not named Wilt Chamberlain — in Detroit to take a 57-point lead over Gervin for the scoring title. After telling reporters pregame that he was going for 58, Gervin scored 53 points in the first half on his way to 63 and the scoring crown.
In the more than four decades since then, only a couple of scoring races have generated as much national attention as Gervin’s long-distance duel with Thompson. The competition between the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and the Wizards’ Bradley Beal has a chance to join the 1977-78 race as an all-timer — not just because Curry is averaging 31.9 points per game to Beal’s 31.4, but because they are two of the league’s most competitive players.
When Curry arrived at Chase Center on Saturday for a game against the Thunder, he was well-aware that Beal had just scored 50 points in an overtime win over the Pacers to challenge for the NBA’s lead in points per game. Needing 22 points to maintain his edge for the scoring title, Curry scored 24 of his 49 points in the first quarter to send Beal a message: This would be no easy crown to win.
Curry has scored 30 or more points in 20 of his past 22 games, averaging 37.2 points on 50.2 percent shooting (45 percent from 3-point range) in that span. The last player to average 37.2 points on at least 50 percent shooting over such a long stretch was Michael Jordan during his first MVP season in 1987-88.
Curry’s historic scoring surge has allowed him to seize the lead in a race that Beal had long looked sure to win. When Curry suffered a bruised tailbone March 17 that would sideline him for nearly two weeks, he was averaging 29 points per game — 3.5 less than Beal’s average of 32.5.
In the nearly two months since then, Russell Westbrook has become more comfortable in the Wizards’ system and eased some of Beal’s scoring burden. Beal is averaging nearly eight fewer points over his past 22 games than Curry in the same span.
Not since April 30 has Beal led Curry in scoring average. In the previous four-plus months of the season, Beal had trailed Curry in scoring average for only 10 total days: three days after Curry’s 62-point night against Portland on Jan. 3 and seven days after his 49point outburst against Philadelphia on April 19.
With three games left for both the Wizards and Warriors, Curry, 33, is well-positioned to become the NBA’s oldest scoring champion since Jordan won the crown as a 35-year-old in 1997-98. There is no reason to suspect Curry is done scoring 30-plus points on a near-nightly basis. Instead of showing signs of fatigue as the season progressed, he has looked more dynamic. It’s no coincidence that Curry has eclipsed the 40point mark in six of the 15 games since center James Wiseman suffered a seasonending knee injury in an April 10 win over the Rockets. Curry is at his best alongside passing big men, and Wiseman is still figuring out where and how to find teammates.
Though Curry averaged 25.9 points per 36 minutes this season when on the floor with Wiseman, he has averaged 36.6 points per 36 minutes when with any other center. It also hasn’t hurt Curry that he is playing for something. Long conditioned to deliver his greatest performances in the biggest games, he has been fueled in recent weeks by the desire to improve the Warriors’ positioning in the play-in tournament.
With less than a week remaining in the regular season, Golden State sits just a half-game up on ninthplace Memphis for eighth in the Western Conference standings. The eighth-place team will have two chances to win one game in the playin tournament and earn a playoff berth. Meanwhile, the ninth-place team must win two consecutive games to advance.
Beal also has plenty of incentive to help his team climb the standings. The Wizards sit 10th in the Eastern Conference, a halfgame behind ninth-place Indiana and a game and a half behind eighth-place Charlotte.
But unlike Curry, Beal is far from healthy. The Wizards have ruled him out of two games with a left hamstring strain. Considering that Beal missed the final 21 seconds of regulation and all of overtime in a game Saturday that carried major playoff implications, his injury might be severe enough to prevent him from getting another opportunity to improve his scoring average.
After playing Wednesday in Atlanta, the Wizards return to Washington for a season-ending homestand against Cleveland (Friday) and Charlotte (Sunday). If Beal is in fact done for the season, Curry must average 25 points over his final four games to secure his second career scoring title — a daunting test for most players, but perhaps not for a scorer of Curry’s caliber.
Curry has failed to score 25 points only once in his past 16 games. But even if he keeps up his torrid pace over the next three games, he could enter the Warriors’ regular-season finale Sunday against Memphis thinking about the number of points he’ll need to hold off Beal.
The good news for Curry? It almost surely will be more manageable than 58.