At first, it was shocking to behold, but there’s no getting around it at this point — Stephen Curry’s January — and, if we’re being honest, much of his season — has been well below his usual standard. If there was ever a game that qualified as a slump-buster, though, the Golden State Warriors star just had it against the Rockets.
Houston battled hard down the stretch, slashing an 18-point deficit down to four with just over five minutes remaining in the contest. However, Curry simply would not allow his club to lose. Rather, he exploded with a 21-point fourth quarter, which brought his game-high total to 40 and keyed a 122-108 win.
Along the way, Curry connected on 13-of-23 shots and racked up seven three-point bombs.
While this kind of outburst is nothing new for Steph, he seemingly had some extra motivation in the effort. Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. did his best to get into the head of the Warriors’ MVP, trash-talking him, staring him down and playing what can politely be described as tight defense. According to Curry, that game within the game only served to fuel his competitive fire.
Porter ‘Lit a Fire for the Rest of the Game’
When asked about his exchange with KPJ immediately following the contest, Curry was complimentary of the young gun. However, he made no bones about the fact that the “gamesmanship” that occurred played a role in his incredible outburst.
“I like his competitiveness,” Curry said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “He’s got a dog in him and he wanted to take on that challenge. There was a play, I think a couple off-ball fouls, and I won’t say there was chirping, but there was a little gamesmanship. And then we had a steal, I got a good defensive stop and we got a steal and I came down in transition…
“That kind of lit the fire for the rest of the game.”
Porter had a solid night in his own right for the Rockets, putting up 17 points and 11 assists in the loss. However, those efforts were overshadowed by what happened with Curry. Afterword, the talented guard took to Twitter to break down the head-to-head battle:
Trash-talking aside, Porter’s tweet was clearly a big-time showing of respect for Steph. However, it’s not the only nod that Curry got from the fiery 21-year-old.
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KPJ Asked Steph for Advice
It wasn’t just trash that Porter was talking with Curry. During the game’s waning seconds, he again approached his all-world opponent. This time, though, his objective was different:
“Actually, like 30 seconds left, I went up to him and I asked him for some pointers,” Porter said during the postgame scrum.
“Being an MVP, first unanimous one, that’s someone I can learn from. He’s same position as me and he’s been doing this for so long people been getting comfortable with what he’s capable of doing and it’s not really a surprise. But seeing him play like this definitely something to learn from and pointers I can pick from him. So I just asked him for some points and after the game, he kind of elaborated more and answered what I was asking him.”
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