Golden State Warriors
Are Steph Curry half-court buzzer-beaters even impressive anymore?
Golden State Warriors

Are Steph Curry half-court buzzer-beaters even impressive anymore?

Published Feb. 26, 2016 5:11 a.m. ET

At the end of the third quarter of the Golden State Warriors' 130-114 win over the Orlando Magic on Thursday night, Stephen Curry pulled up from half-court and banked in a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Dubs an eight-point advantage heading into the final frame:

Is anyone else yawning?

Curry has made the exceptional seem mundane. As Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told FOX Sports' Sam Gardner after the game, half-court shots are basically regular 3-pointers for Curry. Golden State expects those to go in.

As they should. Curry is making these 40-foot-plus heaves at a considerable rate (for reference, the league average on all 3-pointers is around 36 percent):

Go back and look at how unfazed Leandro Barbosa and Andre Iguodala are in the video. His teammates laughed afterward about how they knew he was going to make the half-court shot.

For the Magic, meanwhile, Jason Smith is clearly upset with himself, as he probably could've closed out on Curry harder, but likely thought it was too far for the shot to realistically drop -- an unfortunate mistake on his part.

Those opposing reactions illustrate the nightly range of emotions when facing Curry. The Warriors are used to this; opponents are not, even if the scouting report reads: "Can pull up from half-court." The Magic apparently learned the hard way, as Curry scorched them for 51 points.

Curry should never be given a clean look at the basket -- otherwise, it's an expected three points. The fact that some teams still don't treat him that way -- even out to half-court -- is the only surprising part anymore.

Jovan Buha covers the NBA for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @jovanbuha.

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