Curry, Harden torch baskets anew
The results were mixed, but hot-shooting nights by Curry, Harden steal thunder from battle of Eastern Conference heavyweights
Stephen Curry and James Harden came up with huge scoring games that boosted their reputation as the NBA’s top guns. Curry earned a three-point milestone while Harden had another 50-point night as their teams hammered out mixed results, and their scoring explosion was enough to overshadow a thrilling battle between Eastern heavyweights Boston and Toronto, which the Celtics won behind star Kyrie Irving.—
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA— Stephen Curry stepped back time and again and released the ball from way back. Most of the time with at least one defender in his face, too.
“It’s insane what he does,” coach Steve Kerr said.
Even crazier might be what James Harden is currently assembling as the Houston Rockets star completed an 18th straight game of 30 points or more—two games shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s record—as he followed up a 57-point seasonhigh with a new mark of 58 points.
Both performances—and Harden’s feat came during a shocking overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets—were enough to grab the spotlight on Wednesday, when the Boston Celtics ended a three-game slump by tripping the Toronto Raptors, 118-107, in a thrilling showdown between two of the East’s best teams.
Curry scored 41 points with nine 3-pointers to become the first player in NBA history to make eight or more 3s in three straight games, and the Golden State Warriors held off the New Orleans Pelicans 147-140 on Wednesday night for their sixth straight win.
“When you get hot like that, you really don’t see anything but the rim,” Curry said. “You just try to stay on balance and get to your spot, wherever that is. Again, these are shots I work on, I have confidence in them, I know my teammates do.”
Harden never suffers from a lack of confidence. Then again, neither does Spencer Dinwiddie, who scored 25 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Nets spoiled Harden’s night with a 145-142 victory over.
In the end, Dinwiddie was less impressed by his late-game scoring for the Brooklyn Nets as he was by the fact that his team got an overtime victory on a night James Harden had a new season-high of 58 points.
“The man had 60 and we won,” Dinwiddie said, shaking his head and only slightly exaggerating Harden’s performance. “That’s big-time for a young group.”
Harden had his second straight season high after scoring 57 in a victory over Memphis on Monday night, but was only 5 of 19 from 3-point range. The Rockets shot an NBA-record 70 3s, making just 23.
Harden was disappointed that his team squandered an eightpoint lead with about a minute left in the fourth and a sevenpoint advantage in overtime.
“Frustrating,” Harden said. “Very frustrating.”
Dinwiddie forced overtime, making three 3-pointers in the last 30 seconds of regulation. In the extra period, he hit the goahead basket with 28 seconds left.
“Just fantastic, he was unbelievable,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “The 3s were great, but I also love how he was driving the ball to the rim, too.”
Dinwiddie said he didn’t really have time to celebrate his hot shooting as the shots were falling and kept a very busi- nesslike mind-set.
“It was like: ‘ Down nine. Down six. Down three. Oh, tied? Let’s get a stop,”’ he said about his 3-point spree. “That’s really all it was.”
Kyrie Irving also hit a clutch triple from 31 feet out and finished with 27 points to lead the Celtics past the NBA-leading Toronto Raptors.
Later, Irving said he regretted criticizing his younger teammates, then he made a call to a former teammate he also owed an apology.
The Celtics point guard said on Wednesday that he called LeBron James over the weekend to apologize for failing to understand the burden the fourtime NBA MVP carried when they played together on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I had to call Bron, and tell him I apologize for being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips,” Irving said. “I wanted to be the guy that led us to a championship. I wanted to be the leader. I wanted to be all that.”
The win snapped a threegame losing streak—all on the road. In lengthy comments after a loss in Orlando on Saturday, Irving called out his less-experienced teammates and said: “We have a lot of learning to do.”
But he said he came to regret what he said, or at least how he said it.
When you get hot like that, you really don’t see anything but the rim STEPHEN CURRY Golden State Warriors