Immediately following the injury to Kevin Durant, you can feel a dark cloud was hanging over the Bay Area. It didn’t help that the Warriors struggled without their MVP forward right off the gate.
Fast forward a couple of weeks later and the Warriors have won 11 games in a row and they have control of the number one seed over the San Antonio Spurs. What a difference a couple of weeks make.
Much of the Warriors’ success has to do with their other MVP, Steph Curry. The baby faced assassin has had a strong showing in 2017 and has only gotten better as the season progresses. Curry is hitting his stride at the perfect time and the NBA has taken notice.
The NBA has named Curry the Western Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season. From March 27th to April 2nd, Curry averaged 31.8 points, 7.8 assists and 5.5 board per game. More importantly, the Warriors went 4-0 and they have been playing excellent team basketball.
The 4-0 is particularly impressive because it came against some of the league’s best. The Warriors traveled to Texas and beat the Spurs and the Houston Rockets on their home floor. The Dubs then came back home to the Bay Area to beat the Rockets again and the Washington Wizards. Not a bad week for Curry and the Warriors.
Here’s the full press release from the Warriors:
OAKLAND, CA – Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has been named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, March 27, through Sunday, April 2, the NBA announced today. The award is the third Player of the Week honor of the season for Curry (10th career), who also won the award for games played from January 2-8 and again from January 30 – February 5, and is the fourth weekly award for the Warriors this season (Kevin Durant earned the honor for games played from November 21-27).
Curry helped the Warriors extend their current winning streak to 11 games with a 4-0 week that included wins at Houston, at San Antonio, vs. Houston and vs. Washington, making the Warriors just the second team in NBA history to earn wins in four-straight games against teams with win percentages of .600 or better in the month of March or later, according to the Elias Sports Bureau (joining the 2004-05 Houston Rockets). Curry averaged 31.8 points, 7.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.50 steals in 34.8 minutes during the week, hitting 52.4 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from three-point range. With 20 three-pointers over the last four games, Curry reached the 300-three-point threshold (302) for the second-straight season after hitting an NBA-record 402 threes in 2015-16 (no other player has hit 300 threes in a single season).
Curry began the week with 32 points and a season-high-tying 10 rebounds in a win at Houston on March 28, his ninth career 30-point/10-rebound effort in the regular season. In Golden State’s season-high 22-point comeback win at San Antonio on March 29, the reigning MVP tallied 29 points and 11 assists for his fifth 20-point/10-assist game this season. He ended the week with a 42-point performance in a win over Washington on April 2, hitting 9-of-14 from three-point range en route to his fourth 40-point outing of the season.
The Warriors own an NBA-best record of 63-14 (.818) this season, becoming the first team in NBA history to win at least 63 games in three-straight seasons. Curry owns averages of 25.2 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.80 steals during the 2016-17 campaign, on pace to become the first Warrior to average 25 points per game in consecutive seasons since Chris Mullin did so in five-straight seasons from 1988-92.
The award marks the 47th time a Warriors player has been named Player of the Week since the NBA began giving out the award in 1979. Chicago’s Jimmy Butler was named Player of the Week in the Eastern Conference.
For more information on the Golden State Warriors 2016-17 season, presented by Kaiser Permanente, visit warriors.com.