Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I must have watched Steph’s unbelievable shot at least 15 times this morning.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Warriors win Game 1
🏈 Top 200 NFL prospects
⚽ NWSL power rankings
A human highlight reel
How many times have we seen Stephen Curry do what he did on Sunday night against the Houston Rockets? Sure, Curry has had plenty of games (288 of them, to be exact) in which he’s scored points more than the 31 he had in the Golden State Warriors’ Game 1 win in Houston, but Curry’s performance on Sunday still belongs on the list of the most notable postseason showings of his career.
The box score stats aren’t anything too special. Curry hit 12 of his 19 field goal attempts, including five of nine three-pointers, and had six rebounds and three assists. The most noteworthy thing about his stat line is that he only got to the free throw line twice. It was just the 11th game in his career in which he’s scored at least 30 points on 20 or fewer field-goal attempts without the benefit of getting to the line more than twice.
But, perhaps more than any other athlete, Curry’s excellence can’t be conveyed merely by statistics. The box score just tells you how many times he put the ball through the hoop. What makes Curry special is how the ball goes through the hoop. And on Sunday, he had a whole bunch of the jaw-dropping moments that have made him the most entertaining player of his generation.
He left Fred VanVleet in the dust with some slick ballhandling in transition before pulling up for a three-pointer. He drilled one from 28 feet with a defender in his face. He buried one on the run from 34 feet away off an inbounds pass. He hit a step-back three as the shot clock expired. He had a bunch of nifty layups.
But there was one shot that stood out above the rest. Midway through the third quarter, with the Warriors having stretched their lead to 20 points, Curry hit what is, without exaggeration, one of the greatest shots of his career. Blanketed by Jalen Green as the shot clock approached zero, Curry threw up a high-arching shot as he fell into the first row. For any other player, it would accurately be described as a desperate heave. Curry hit nothing but net.
The Warriors needed Curry to have a big night, as the rest of the offense was quiet. Jimmy Butler had 25 points and Brandin Podziemski had 14. No one else scored more than seven points.
“He was incredible,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “With that type of pressure from [Amen] Thompson and others, he just made some amazing plays and obviously carried us offensively.”
Even after winning Game 1 on the road, Golden State still faces a stiff challenge in this opening-round series against the Rockets. Houston is a much better team than it showed in Game 1, when it shot a dismal 6 of 29 from three, but this current iteration of the Warriors is also a lot better than its 48–34 regular season record would indicate. The Warriors are now 25–8 since trading for Butler in early February. Only two teams in the NBA have won more games in that span (the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics). The trade has been especially beneficial for Curry, who was averaging 22.7 points per game before Butler arrived but is now averaging 27.4 since the deal.
Curry is 37. There are legitimate questions about whether he’ll be able to keep up this high level of play with the high intensity and condensed schedule of postseason basketball. But for at least one night, he turned back the clock to turn in a vintage Steph Curry performance and make people start to believe that the Warriors could be legitimate contenders in the West.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- It’s NFL draft week. Daniel Flick ranked the top 200 players available, and you might have to scroll farther than you’d expect to find a quarterback.
- Tyler Lauletta ranked the 10 best entrances from this weekend’s WrestleMania 41.
- The Kansas City Current took the top spot in Theo Lloyd-Hughes’s NWSL power rankings.
- Ben Steiner ranked the five MLS clubs most likely to sign Bayern Munich icon Thomas Müller this summer.
- Former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava made his transfer to UCLA official.
- Padres infielder Luis Arraez was taken to the hospital after a frightening collision at first base.
- Max Fried’s no-hit bid ended controversially due to a scoring change. (He ended up allowing a hit later, but still a weird situation.)
Max Fried’s no-hit bid ended controversially due to a scoring change. (He ended up allowing a hit later, but still a weird situation.)
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Mitch Marner’s slick breakaway goal.
4. An amazing diving catch by Elly De La Cruz.
3. Ty Jerome’s 28 points in 26 minutes off the bench for the Cavs.
2. Alperen Sengun’s nasty dunk all over Draymond Green.
1. Nationals shortstop Nasim Nuñez’s outrageous speed to snag a ball in shallow left.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Vintage Stephen Curry Performance Leads Warriors Over Rockets.
