Stephen Curry played a game unlike any other in his career. It was part of a terrible night for the Golden State Warriors.
Curry didn’t make a shot from the court in his 24 minutes — the first time he’d played that many minutes without a basket in his 16-year career — and the Warriors fell behind by 57 points in what became a 144-93 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday evening.
“We came across a buzz saw,” Curry said. “We obviously know we’re better than that. I have to be better than that.’
The 51-point final margin and 57-point deficit were both the largest in the NBA this season.
“You lose by 51 points, that’s humiliating,” coach Steve Kerr said after his team, which started the season 12-3, lost for the ninth time in its last 11 games.
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Curry was 0 for 7, missing all six of his attempts from three-point range. It was only the fifth time in Curry’s career that he had a shot in a game and didn’t register a field goal: he was 0 for 1 once, 0 for 2 once, 0 for 3 once and 0 for 4 once.
“He’s one of the toughest covers in NBA history,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said.
Not on Thursday, however.
“That was embarrassing,” Curry said.
It was only the fifth time in Warriors history that they lost a regular season game by more than 50 points. Three of those have come in the last five years – 53 to Toronto in Tampa, Florida in 2021, 52 in Boston on March 3 and Thursday’s 51-point loss.
The franchise’s regular season record is a 63-point loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972. The Philadelphia Warriors lost by 51 points in Boston in 1962.
“They weren’t our nights,” Kerr said. “Including mine.”
Curry and Draymond Green had never combined for zero field goals in a game in which both played until Thursday.
“There’s a first time for everything, right?” Currie said.
Brandin Podziemski and Andrew Wiggins combined to make 15 of their 24 shots for Golden State. The rest of the Warriors shot 17 of 66 – 25.8% – while Dennis Schroder went 2 for 12 in his Golden State debut. Jonathan Kuminga also shot 2 of 12.
The Warriors have now trailed by 45 points in each of the last six seasons at least one game.
“When we’re all locked in defensively, you see what kind of team we can be,” Grizzlies guard Ja Morant said.
The Grizzlies now have the two largest margins of victory in the NBA this season. They defeated Portland by 45 on November 10.
Memphis also led Golden State by 55 points in Game 5 of the 2022 Western Conference Semifinals, ultimately winning that game by 39 points. The Warriors went on to win that series in six games and ultimately win that season’s NBA title.
“I know who we are. I know what our team stands for,” Kerr said. “I know we have competitors, and I know we’ll bounce back and regroup. So I’m not worried about that. But we still have a lot of work to do to execute on this.” and learn how to perform under pressure, take care of the ball and make good shots.”
