TODAY’S TALKER

Golden State superstar Steph Curry shooting way into NBA history

Never. That’s the last time the NBA saw a shooting stretch like the one Stephen Curry has assembled in the past few weeks.

It’s been 45 years since the last instance of an NBA MVP being selected from a team that wasn’t at least 10 games over the .500 mark, but Curry has shot his way into serious consideration. He’s averaging 31.4 points on 49% shooting this season; the only other season in which he averaged more than 30 points was 2015-16, when he averaged 30.1 on 50% shooting and was the unanimous MVP.

Those Golden State Warriors were 73-9. These Warriors are 2929. That’s the biggest reason why Curry isn’t even more prevalent in the MVP talks.“he’s never played any better,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s been incredible to watch.”

Bob Pettit and Kareem Abduljabbar are the only players to win MVP awards on teams that had winning percentages below .560. The award typically goes to the best player on a team that finishes high in the standings, not one that’ll likely have to scratch and claw just to make the postseason. That said, these are not typical times.

“Steph Curry left no doubt about who the real MVP is tonight!” Magic Johnson tweeted Monday, when Curry had 49 points to lead Golden State past Philadelphia. With 78 3-pointers in his last 11 games, Curry has set the record for most 3’s in any 11-game stretch from the same regular season in NBA history. (And during this run, he’s also broken the records for most 3’s in spans of 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four and three games as well. He already owned the two-game mark before this stretch started.)