Stephen Curry's Legend Grows Yet Again with 50-Point, All-Time Great Game 7 Win
What else can Stephen Curry possibly show us?
On Sunday, with his Golden State Warriors facing elimination and the prospect of one of the game's most decorated trios ending, Curry set a new all-time standard.
His 50 points are the most ever scored by an NBA player in a Game 7.
And in height-of-the-dynasty-Warriors fashion, Curry did much of the damage in the second half of Golden State's 120-100 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Sacramento led 58-56 at the half. And with the thought of the Warriors' dismal 11-30 regular-season away record lingering, it felt like the Kings might actually end this thing.
This decade-plus run that includes four championships, two MVPs for Curry, a Defensive Player of the Year nod for Draymond Green, incalculable adversity for Klay Thompson and almost 13,000 minutes with all three on the floor was in real jeopardy.
Or maybe it wasn't.
Maybe we should've trusted Curry. Maybe we should've remembered the third-quarter avalanches we've seen from this team for years. Maybe we should've remembered the other times this team had its back against the wall in the playoffs.
Just last year, they trailed the Boston Celtics 2-1 in the Finals before rattling off three straight wins for the fourth title of this era. In 2018, they trailed the Houston Rockets 3-2 in the Western Conference Finals. They won that series in seven and then swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals. In 2016, they overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Game 6 Klay made his presence known in plenty of those comebacks. Draymond's playmaking and defense were certainly important.
But the strongest and most consistent thread has always been Curry.
After his 50-point barrage on Sunday, Curry is now averaging 27.0 points per game in the playoffs, good for 10th all time. And in a career packed with massive individual performances, it's hard to remember many bigger than this.
Curry's 20 first-half points felt critical to keep the Warriors in the game. The team's second- and third-leading scorers in the regular season, Thompson and Jordan Poole, were a combined 3-of-16 before halftime. Each Curry bucket helped his team simply hang around.
And then came the wave that felt like 2015-16 all over again. That regular season, Golden State was a league-best plus-12.9 points per 100 possessions in third quarters. Curry averaged 9.9 points per third quarter. Again, a league high.
And while plenty of the onslaughts he led coming out of the break that season felt huge, especially in pursuit of the 73 wins they eventually piled up, they don't quite live up to Sunday.
Curry dropped 14 in the third against Sacramento. And he set the tone in Golden State's first possession of that frame with a step-back three over his former teammate, Harrison Barnes.
He converted four twos and three free throws over the rest of the frame, and the Warriors entered the fourth quarter up 10 (and boasted a whopping plus-56.3 net rating for the third).
But Curry wasn't satisfied. He one-upped himself with 16 in the final frame, including a pair of back-breaking threes.
First, with just under eight minutes left, he drilled a 27-footer over 6'8" Keegan Murray.
Less than two minutes later, he hit a corner three off an inbounds play that put the game fully out of reach for the upstart Kings.
All told, Curry got his 50 on 13-of-20 shooting from two-point range, 7-of-18 from three and 3-of-5 from the line. And the NBA world was in awe.
"Legendary 30," former Warrior Kevin Durant tweeted. "50 pieces"
"Unreal Performance," Trae Young added. "Steph Different"
FS1's Chris Broussard declared Curry top-10 all time. The Action Network's Matt Moore went even further.
Wherever you have him ranked, it's clear that moments like Sunday's are unique to Curry.
Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James were all athletic marvels who looked like literal giants next to the average NBA consumer. Even Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were 6'6". And while Curry's strength and athleticism may be an underrated aspect of his legendary career, he isn't in the same physical class as those names.
But he can completely dominate a quarter, half or entire game in every bit as breathtaking a manner.
The anticipation between release and swish on his jumpers is gleeful at the Chase Center, but it's quite the opposite on the road. You could sense the dread, even through the screen, of Sacramento fans on every Curry attempt. The helplessness that's gripped countless defenders in the face of Curry's ball-handling took hold of multiple Kings on Sunday.
Once he got rolling, the result felt inevitable. Because, again, we've seen it before.
And after this performance, it's hard to understand how we ever forget.
