NBA Cheat Code: Stephen Curry

Last night, Stephen Curry had what Ethan Sherwood Strauss deemed to be the greatest Golden State Warrior individual performance ever. And as Strauss put it, merely stating that the Davidson product scored 54 points fails to properly acknowledge the type of dominance exhibited at Madison Square Garden last night.

Curry was simply relentless, unstoppable and by all means unflappable.

He dribbled into some of his shots, ran pick-and-rolls and launched off the bounce all the while completely ignoring the defenders in his path. Heck, he even fired treys in two-on-one transition opportunities.

Curry essentially played a game of Russian roulette against the New York Knicks and won. The Knickerbockers were ultimately victorious, but the Warriors’ guard owned the night.

Late in the game, Golden State put their leading scorer in pick-and-roll situations and it led to hard traps where Curry was able to find open teammates. But with other Warriors failing to make shots, the silky shooter had to resort to running off screens for quick catch and shoot opportunities to put points on the board.

In truth, the Knickerbockers limited the damage by forcing turnovers and keeping the ball out of Steph’s hands, but they never truly stopped him save for a Ray Felton jump shot block. But don’t take my word for it, have a look at his shooting chart from last night’s game courtesy of NBA.com:

It’s worth noting that much like the contests against the Indiana Pacers, Curry wasn’t afforded the opportunity of simply catching and shooting with his whole body squared up and on balance. Indeed, he had perhaps one spot up jumper and the remainder of his attempts came as a result of his brilliant creativity as a scorer.

He got to the basket and served defenders with exquisite floaters, drove down the lane for a tough left-handed layup off the glass in traffic and he shot the ball like the assassin he is.

Since 1985, here is the list of opponents to score 50 or more points at Madison Square Garden: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan (twice), LeBron James (twice), Richard Hamilton (you’re as confused as I am about this one) and Stephen Curry. Have a look at this very same list placed in order of points:

Player	Date	Points	FGM*	FGA**
Kobe Bryant	02/02/09	61	19	31
Michael Jordan	03/28/95	55	21	37
Stephen Curry	02/27/13	54	18	28
LeBron James	02/04/09	52	17	33
Richard Hamilton	12/27/06	51	19	37
LeBron James	03/05/08	50	16	30
Michael Jordan	11/01/86	50	15	31

*FGM: Field goals made

**FGA: Field goals attempted

Stephen Curry needed the least amount of field goal attempts — also shot the least amount of free throws — to break the 50-point barrier when compared with others to achieve the feat in New York.

Any way you slice it, Steph’s performance last night was out of this world. But don’t take my word as gospel, here are some reactions from prominent media members and players from around the league:

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com