Sports: Curry, back from injury, hits 10 3-pointers on his way to 38 points in 26 minutes as Warriors defeat Grizzlies 141-128.
Back from ankle injury, Steph hits 10 from deep, scores 38 to ignite win
It took nearly three weeks before the Warriors could welcome back Stephen Curry. It took only a three-minute sequence in the second quarter before the Warriors lost Draymond Green to an ejection.
With Curry, the Warriors received a quick reminder of how fun and prolific they can play on offense. As a result, the Warriors secured a 141-128 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday at Oracle Arena in a game tailor-made for videogame enthusiasts.
After missing the past 11 games with a sprained right ankle, Curry looked fully healed and back to the man who secured two NBA championships and two MVP awards by being the league’s best shooter.
Curry posted a game-high 38 points, while shooting 13 of 17 and setting a season- and NBA season-record 10 of 13 from 3-point range along with posting four rebounds and three assists.
“I was excited. It felt like a first day of school again,” Curry said. “You go through the mental grind of keeping your body
somewhat in shape without being able to play. It’s a different challenge. There’s a monotony to it every day. You have to get through it and you know what your goal is and for when you come back. Hopefully it will pay off. But when I woke up this morning and knew I would just play basketball, that’s a great feeling to have.”
Curry performed these miraculous feats despite playing only 26 minutes on a team-imposed minutes restriction and sitting out the entire fourth quarter.
When Curry left with the floor with 2:55 left in the third quarter, he received a standing ovation for a job well done. Curry still pleaded to stay late in the third quarter. Once Memphis chopped the Warriors’ lead to 128-114 lead with 4:53, Warriors coach Steve Kerr did not want to take any chances and inserted Curry for veteran guard Shaun Livingston. Curry then hit a 3-pointer that gave the Warriors a 137-119 cushion with 2:50 remaining.
“I was fighting my instinct. My instinct was to get him out,” Kerr said. “I wasn’t hoping we wouldn’t have to put him back in the game. But we did.”
Though Golden State set a franchise record for most points scored against Memphis, the Warriors fell shy
of a season high after posting 143 points against Chicago on Nov. 24.
In the rare moments Curry did not shoot the ball, the Warriors’ offense still hummed along with Klay Thompson (21 points), Kevin Durant (20 points) and Zaza Pachulia (13 points, eight rebounds, six assists).
The only thing more proficient than Curry’s play? How little time it took for officials to toss Green.
Green picked up two technicals after arguing fouls that were called against them within a three-minute sequence. However, replays show that Green did not react as demonstrably as he has in other games. Nonetheless, Green was ejected as the Warriors trailed Memphis 43-42 with 9:45 left in the second quarter.
Kerr, Durant and Pachulia said they could not have a good view of the everything leading up to the ejection. But Kerr still argued, “It didn’t look like it warranted an ejection.”
With and without Green, the Warriors (29-8) did little to stop Memphis (11-25).
Grizzlies center Marc Gasol represented a taller and bulkier version of Curry, as he posted 27 points while shooting 10 of 13 from the field and 4 of 4 from 3-point range. Memphis’ Tyreke Evans (22 points), Kobi Simmons (17 points), JaMychal Green (12 points) and Deyonta Davis (10 points) also posted double
figures. And the Grizzlies scored 50 points in the paint.
In other words, the Warriors did not exactly play with the same kind of defensive intensity as when they went 9-2 without Curry in the lineup and shortly before he suffered his injury on Dec. 4 in New Orleans.
Through 12 games in December, the Warriors led the NBA in several defensive categories per game, including blocks (8.4), defensive rebounds (36.4) and opponent field-goal percentage (41.7).
The Warriors did not show such discipline against Memphis. With Curry back on the floor, though, that did not matter.
“You could hear the building tonight. Everything just looks better,” Kerr said of Curry’ s presence. “The food in there is going to taste better tonight. My wife is going to be even better looking than she already is. My kids are going to be happy. Steph has that impact. It’s the way it is. He’s a franchise player for a reason. It goes on and off the court in what he does for this franchise is crazy.”
So for the first night of possibly many, Curry returned to offer the same qualities that always made him and the Warriors special for the past three years.
“It’s hard to wrap my mind around it when I’m still in it and still trying to get better and achieve championships and things like that,” Curry said.
“I know I have a unique style and have really gotten comfortable (with) what that’s like when I’m out there playing. Honestly, I’ll worry about what that means in the grand scheme of history when I’m done playing.”