Curry enjoys historic shooting night, but Thursday's win all about that dunk
With Kobe Bryant in town for the last time, the Golden State Warriors wanted to give the longtime thorn in their side and future Hall of Famer a memorable sendoff on Thursday night.
Well, perhaps the greatest shooter in NBA history did his best to make the night memorable . . . and we’re not talking about Jerry West’s tribute video.
A night after losing for just the third time this season, the Warriors turned to the reigning MVP and got a performance very much befitting an MVP — or future Hall of Famer.
Stephen Curry made nine shots on one of the more unique shooting nights in recent memory, scoring 26 points on eight 3-pointers and one dunk as Golden State had little trouble with the Lakers, winning 116-98 to improve to 37-3 on the season.
Just how rare was the performance for the best shooter in the game right now (and in a growing number of people’s eyes, the best ever)? Only four other people in the NBA took as many 3-point shots as Curry made on Thursday night, including opposing point guard D’Angelo Russell, who was a woeful 2 of 10 from behind the arc.
It was also a night unlike any night ever seen before: It was Curry’s 18th career game with at least eight 3-pointers made — the most such games in NBA history.
But it was the lone 2-point basket Curry made that really had the Oracle Arena crowd buzzing.
Just how rare was Curry’s dunk?
@JacobPadilla_ Now 1370 career three-pointers, 19 career dunks for Stephen Curry. One more career dunk than Kyle Korver now.
— Rob Anderson (@_robanderson) January 15, 2016
That's just the second dunk of the year for Steph Curry. https://t.co/7tGBF3Ij4I
— Positive Residual (@presidual) January 15, 2016
You know you are a terrible defensive team when you let Stephen Curry dunk #LALatGSW
— 2⃣Kyler4⃣ (@TheVietnamBomb) January 15, 2016
"I still wish he would lay all those up," an unamused interim coach Luke Walton told the media after the game. "That was a nice throw down he had."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
