Warriors’ Curry does it again: ‘Nothing surprises me anymore’
The early front runner for the Maurice Podoloff Trophy showed why in the fourth quarter Thursday night.
Stephen Curry scored 20 points in the final quarter to will the Warriors to , pouring in half his scoring in a single quarter and more than doubling the Cavs’ points in a dominant final period.
“Nothing surprises me anymore, and yet I’m amazed, if that makes sense,” coach Steve Kerr admired afterward.
For the second straight game and the fourth time this season, Curry connected nine times on shots from beyond the arc, a mark he’s reached 38 times in his career.
For the second straight game, too, Curry received “M-V-P” chants from the opposing crowd.
“It’s the Steph Curry effect,” said Juan Toscano-Anderson. “He’s the best player in the world. He’s got fans everywhere. It’s cool, man. There’s nothing much to it other than just sit back and embrace it because there’s not everyday that you see this type of effect.”
Teammates and even foes are sometimes left only to watch with wonder.
“At some point, all you can do is watch,” said Andrew Wiggins. “It’s entertaining. It’s not just entertaining for the fans. It’s entertaining for the team, too. When we’re on the court, we find ourselves watching and just shaking our head because it’s that unbelievable. He’s playing at different level right now.”
With 40 points Thursday night, Curry sits atop the leaderboard of the league’s top scorers with 29.5 per game.
His fourth quarter went down as the 35th 20-point period of his career and the second this season.
Curry’s 85 3-pointers through the first 15 games of the season broke the record he set in 2018-19 with
80, which broke the record he set in 2015-16, with 74.
The babyfaced wonder apparently only gets better with age.
“I will say he looks stronger physically than ever before,” Kerr said. “I thought last year he looked stronger than he ever had, and I think that’s been the case this year too . ... As good as he is and as good as he’s been, it just looks to me like he’s really, really physically strong. That allows him to get through nights like tonight.”
He did all that while battling a bruised hip that he suffered while taking a charge Tuesday in Brooklyn.
Curry was listed as questionable Thursday, and afterward said he would need to be evaluated for his status Friday night in Detroit on the second leg of the Warriors’ set of back-toback games.
“That charge really messed with me a little bit. So I’m just trying to deal with that,” Curry said after the game. “We’ll see how it feels when I wake up . ... I don’t got a lot of meat back there.”