Two-time MVP Stephen Curry entered Year 18 with the Golden State Warriors dogged by questions about a knee injury that cost him half of last season.
Six games in, Curry has silenced those concerns — averaging 30.0 points in just 28.8 minutes (a career low, excluding his injury-shortened 2011–12 and 2019–20 campaigns). With a 34-point performance in Monday’s 116–113 win over the Phoenix Suns, he joined Michael Jordan and LeBron James in elite company.
The NBA announced:
[Stephen Curry] has scored 109 points over his last 3 games (44, 31, 34). At age 38 or older, the only other players in NBA history to score that many points in a 3-game span are Michael Jordan (3x) and LeBron James (2x)
🧑🍳 34 PTS 🧑🍳 6 REB 🧑🍳 7 AST 🧑🍳 5 3PM 🧑🍳 GSW W
He has scored 109 points over his last 3 games (44, 31, 34). At age 38 or older, the only other players in NBA history to score that many points in a 3-game span are Michael Jordan (3x) and LeBron James (2x) 🤯
With his performance on Monday, Curry also became the oldest player ever to score 30+ points in three straight wins, per Real App.
— 30.0 PPG (2nd in NBA) — 28.8 MIN (95th in NBA)
30.0 PPG 4.5 APG 4.2 RPG 46.8% FG 42.9% 3PT 98.1% FT
He’s doing this on 28.8 MPG 🤯
Stephen Curry Gets to the Line
Curry has made a concerted effort to get to the free throw line more this year, having attempted a 52 free throws through his first six games(8.7 per game). That’s an anomaly for a player who has averaged just 4.4 free throws per game over his 18-year career and never topped 6.3 in a single season.
It’s a fifth straight Warriors win.
Major frontcourt impact from Charles Bassey: 19
In Monday’s win, his 51-for-51 streak from the line ended, something that caught Curry himself by surprsie.
“Yeah. I’m always surprised when I miss,” he said of his streak ending.
Warriors Win 5 in a Row
The red-hot Warriors were nearly rattled by an altercation between Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks in Thursday’s game, leading to Green’s ejection. However, Curry said postgame that the incident fuelled him and his teammates to victory.
“We know what he brings, and he lit a fire underneath us to respond,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area of Green. “Once he goes out, it’s on us to pick up the slack. Play competitive basketball with that same toughness.”
“It was a combination of that moment, we got to have our brother’s back when he defends us, but it was also understanding that this was one of those games where most of the guys were on a back-to-back and Phoenix had been off for a couple of days, they started 1-3, so we knew they were going to come out playing desperate,” Curry said.
Further to Curry’s point, the Warriors were down 67-57 when Curry was ejected.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was not surprised by Curry’s exploits.
“That’s just the greatest NBA basketball players on earth competing,” Kerr said of Curry. “Nothing serious happened.”
The Warriors (5-3) will look to extend their winning streak to six games Thursday night when they face the Miami Heat (2-5).
Warriors Get Stephen Curry News Amid 5-Game Winning Streak