Curry breaks 3-point record against Knicks in first quarter
NEW YORK — Stephen Curry has shot his way to the top of the NBA record book for 3-pointers.
Curry hit his 2,974th 3-pointer Tuesday night in the first quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ game against the New York Knicks, breaking the record set by Ray Allen.
Curry hit the shot from the right wing with 7:33 remaining, waving his arms toward the sky as he jogged backward down court. The Warriors then committed a foul and quickly called timeout to let the celebration begin. Curry exchanged hugs with coach Steve Kerr, longtime teammate Draymond Green, family members and Allen, who was at the arena.
Curry is often considered the league’s greatest shooter, and the numbers back him up. He already owns two of the top three seasons for 3-pointers — including the only season with 400 3s — and now has the career record Allen had held since passing Reggie Miller in 2011.
The record came at Madison Square Garden, where Curry had one of his early-career highlights on Feb. 27, 2013, when he made 11 3-pointers and scored 54 points. He’s gone on to win two MVP awards and three championships while becoming one of the biggest, most popular stars in the game.
“I think fans are attracted to him just because of his humility and his story and how hard he’s had to work, so from that standpoint it transcends sports somewhat,“Kerr said before the game.
Curry’s pursuit of the NBA’S career 3-point record
created warm and fuzzy environments for the Golden State Warriors at each stop.
Yet among those he calls friends and foes around the league, Curry knows there’s a different feeling. They wanted to challenge the soon-to-be 3-point king.
“Yeah, you hear a little bit of everything,” Curry said after Monday’s 102-100 victory at Indiana. “I saw what Joel (Embiid) said the other day in his postgame. I know teams are coming out and making sure it’s not going to happen against them, especially when it’s 16 or 10 or seven.
But I won’t get this again, and once you get over the mountaintop, it’s just how far you can push it.”
Opponents delayed Curry’s quest about as long as possible.
After making five 3s, scoring 26 points and rallying the Warriors to a victory Monday, Curry only needed one more 3-pointer to tie Allen’s mark of 2,973, and he hit the two in the first quarter Tuesday against the Knicks Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night against the Knicks. Ticket prices quadrupled on the secondary market, and Reggie Miller, who held the record until Allen broke it in February 2011, is expected to call the game for TNT.
But reaching this point seemed unlikely when critics deemed the 6-foot-2
college star as a shooting guard trapped in a point guard’s body. They questioned his size, his shot selection, even whether he could make a successful transition from Davidson to the NBA.
Pacers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce got an upclose experience when he worked with Curry during his second pro season.
“It’s funny when you were around him during that year there were some games he was like 1 for 10 or 1 for 11 and you know everyone that goes up looks good,” Pierce said. “He liked to shoot on the gun back then and I was like, ‘What are you doing, you’re just coming into the league. You need bodies on you, you need to work.’ That was one thing we did, was always have a body on him.”
Curry wasn’t like anyone else, though.
Nobody could match his prolific shooting beyond the arc and Curry spawned imitators leaguewide as teams relied on analytics that suggested they would score more points if they attempted more 3s instead of long 2s.
Brooklyn’s James Harden is second among active players and fourth all-time with 2,509 3-pointers, and 13 of the top 30 players on the 3-point list are still active.
It took Miller 1,389 games to set the NBA record of 2,560. Allen needed 309 fewer games to pass Miller, and now Curry did it after playing 788 career games.