Curry hits for 53 in win, passes Wilt as team’s top scorer.
Curry drops 53, breaks franchise scoring record
After hitting a layup, Warriors guard Stephen Curry glanced up at Wilt Chamberlain’s No. 13 in the rafters and blew a kiss.
There were nearly two minutes left in the first quarter of Golden State’s 116107 victory over the Nuggets at Chase Center on Monday, and Curry already had scored 19 points to break Chamberlain’s 56yearold franchise scoring record. But on this night, with the injurythinned Warriors desperate for their first winning streak in threeplus weeks, Curry was hardly content with passing one of the greatest players in NBA history.
With a mix of deep 3pointers, dizzying ballhandling and crazy finishes around the
rim, he helped Golden State pull away from a title contender in the second half on his way to 53 points on 14for24 shooting (10for18 from 3point range), with seven rebounds and four assists. Fifteen of his 16 foul shots went in on a night Curry further solidified his status as the most important player in franchise history.
Though Chamberlain might be ahead of Curry on the list of alltime greats, Chamberlain played only 51⁄2 seasons with the Warriors before getting traded to the 76ers in January 1965. Curry, now in his 12th season with Golden State, boasts five Finals appearances, three championships, two MVP awards and a slew of franchise records.
Perhaps none is more impressive than his 17,818 career points, which are 35 more than someone who averaged 41.5 points during his Warriors tenure. What made Monday’s feat especially memorable was that it came in a game Golden State needed — both in terms of the standings as well as morale.
A day earlier, the Warriors learned that rookie center James Wiseman could miss the rest of the season with a torn right meniscus. This was a devastating blow for a team that had spent threeplus months watching Wiseman weather a steep learning curve and a number of setbacks to finally start flashing the dominance that made him the No. 2 pick in November’s draft.
With Wiseman, guard Kelly Oubre Jr. (wrist) and forward Eric Paschall (hip) sidelined, Curry knew he’d probably have to dazzle for the Warriors to beat a Denver team that had won eight of its previous nine games. And that’s precisely what he did. By the time Golden State entered halftime staring down a fivepoint deficit, Curry was the first Warriors player since Rick Barry in 1967 with seven straight 30point games.
In the third quarter, Curry added 18 points as Golden State outscored the Nuggets 4322 to seize a 16point lead. All that was left was for Curry to get doused with water during his postgame TV interview on the court.