On the 3rd January 2021, Steph Curry had his best scoring night ever with 62 points. And it was timely to say the least, as he was receiving a lot of criticism from fans that he can’t lead a team by himself. The Warriors didn’t have the best start to the season with 2 blowout losses against the Brooklyn Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks, losing to the Nets by 26 and the Bucks by 39. It was clear that Steph was just shaking off the rust, as he missed almost all of last season, as he shot quite poorly in these first 2 games. He only converted on 20% of his three-point attempts over these 2 games and shot 34.2% from the field, very below average for him. But he would soon turn it around.
After losing to the Portland Trail Blazers 2 nights before, they faced them again at the Chase Centre. In their previous meeting, it was the Dame Lillard show, as he shot 6/10 from three, had 34 points and only 1 turnover. Steph didn’t even play poorly in their first matchup, 26 points and 1 turnover, but he could do far far better. Here’s how he got 62 points.
It all starts with who’s taking the shots for the Warriors. In the first game, the Warriors team, excluding Steph, shot just 22/59 from the field or 37% and Steph only attempted 20 shots. Whereas in their second meeting, Steph attempted 31 shots from the field. What Steph did great in this game too was draw a lot of fouls. He shot 19 free throws and, to no surprise, scored 18 of them. Possibly the biggest reason for his high scoring night was that he finally started shooting threes like he used to. He shot 16 in this game and scored 8 of them. Then the remaining 20 points that he scored were predominantly layups and floaters. When Steph shoots as great as he did this night, defenders have no choice but to guard him much tighter which makes it easier for Steph to beat them going to the basket.
With the Warriors securing their 4th victory last night against the Sacramento Kings, they now have a 4-3 record for the season, which isn’t too bad. I think what we’ve seen from Steph so far is just the beginning and this season, he could be a real contender for the MVP award.
