Steph appreciates battles against OKC after picking up another big win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Stephen Curry is already known for his incredible skills on a basketball court, and he has been known to show off his athletic skills on the golf course a few times.
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After all, Curry was brilliant as a closer for Golden State on Sunday in Oklahoma City. The two-time NBA MVP scored eight of his season-high 36 points in the fourth quarter and made multiple clutch plays down the stretch to help the Warriors hand the Thunder their first home loss of the season in a 127-116 win at Paycom Center.
Not that Curry hasn’t done it before, especially in OKC. He has a history of crushing the spirits of Thunder fans for years and was just the latest chapter in his book of favorite places to play.
“I like it,” Curry said after Sunday’s win on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Warriors Postgame Live.” “The one thing that’s cool is that over all these years, there have only been a few years where OKC and us haven’t been very relevant in the Western Conference. But for the most part, this has always been a struggle and a grind. So you look forward to it. It’s great energy, the fans are great, their team is great.
“And of course it’s great to win.”
For what seems like the umpteenth time in his illustrious NBA career, Curry shredded the Thunder like a piece of cheese. He dropped a season-high 36 points in 36 minutes and had seven assists with five rebounds.
Curry would have had more if one of the referees hadn’t missed a blatant foul against the Thunder after the Warriors’ sharpshooter nailed one of the seven three-pointers he made.
“Steph was incredible,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Great rhythm. The impact he made with his passing – even when he wasn’t making shots, he pulled defenders with him and that opened up the whole attack.”
On a night when Golden State got big scoring plays from Jonathan Kuminga, DeAnthony Melton, it was easily apparent that Curry is still the man driving the Warriors’ wagon.
That’s how quickly Golden State went from a team that many thought would have a hard time qualifying for the play-in game, to a team that is now seen as a serious contender in the Western Conference.
That his latest heroics came against the Thunder is certainly no surprise. Prior to Sunday, Curry was averaging 26.7 over 46 career games against Oklahoma City, his third-highest mark against any NBA team.
This was perhaps one of the toughest Thunder teams Curry has faced, even though OKC lost its starting center, Chet Holmgren, to injury early in the game.
Before that, the Thunder were one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. They had a collective defensive rating of 97.3 and had only one player score more than 25 points against them this season.
Until Curry came to town.
Curry and the Warriors played so well early that Kerr had hoped to give his point guard some extra rest in the fourth quarter. Those plans had to be scrapped after the Thunder cut a 30-point lead to 114-108.
After a Jonathan Kuminga dunk, Curry helped force a turnover and then raced to the other end of the court, pumped up Lugentz Dort and then sank a sidestep 3-pointer with two minutes left. Curry also made a pair of free throws with 53 seconds left to seal the deal.
“It looked like it was going to be a night where we could keep it under 30 minutes again, and then OKC obviously made that big run to start the fourth,” Kerr said. “Steph did a great job of coming back and closing it down when things got a little tricky.”
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