Stephen Curry’s Legendary Performance is Comparable to Greats of the Past

The Golden State Warriors may very well win the NBA title this season. They could do so in record fashion. For a previously struggling franchise to reach this level of excellence in such a short period of time. It’s been awe-inspiring.

But none of that, in a vacuum, will compare to what Golden State did Saturday night against the Rockets in Houston. To be more specific, none of that will compare to what MVP Stephen Curry did Saturday night in Houston.

Bay Area News Group’s Marcus Thompson called Curry’s rebound over the mammoth of a man that is Dwight Howard a perfect illustration of the “reality the Rockets had to deal with” on Saturday night.

It was more than that. This one play was a representation of the Warriors wanting it more than their Western Conference foe. Going for the juggler after two substandard wins at home to open the series, Golden State defeated the Rockets by 35 points in Houston. It did so with the home team needing a win in order to avoid facing a 3-0 deficit. Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals told us a story that fans and writers in the Bay Area already knew. The Warriors are on an entirely other level. More specifically, Stephen Curry is on an entirely new level. He’s reaching a summit that few before him have reached before.

Courtesy of USA Today Sports: Curry had that look—a look few in the NBA have.

Scoring 40 points on 19 shots is one thing. Doing so on the road in Houston with the opponent’s season on the line is a completely different thing. Instead of wilting under the weight of what was at one point a raucous crowd at the Toyota Center, Curry took this hostility and treated it like oxygen.

Some have likened Curry’s performance to what Michael Jordan did during his Chicago Bulls career. That is to say, going on the road and sucking the blood out of the other team. Acting the part of a vampire needing to feast off the torture of the victim.

Curry isn’t Jordan. He will never be Jordan. His game is no way similar to Jordan’s. But for one night, he was the current NBA’s version of Jordan.

The stats are nice. Forty points on 19 shots (2.1 per shot), five rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block. But the stats don’t tell us the story. The stats don’t give this story the legs it will have years into the future when we discuss some of the greatest NBA Playoff performances of the modern era.

A conductor of sorts throughout the game, Curry had the Rockets on ice skates. They were unable to match his intensity. They were unable to match his elite-level play. Fellow Warriors players picked up on this, and went for blood. Curry upped the level of everyone around him. He dominated the tempo. In this, he was the Michael Jordan of today’s NBA, even if it was for just 34 minutes.

“I watched (Jordan) a lot,” Andre Iguodala said after the game, via San Jose Mercury News. “He won but he won gracefully. He wasn’t exerting too much energy. He wasn’t forcing anything. It all came within like this beautiful flow. When you know you’ve got someone like that who is that great, you’re not going to panic. The game he had, it was that flow. He wasn’t forcing shots. He wasn’t just dribbling until he took a shot. It was flow. Making a pass. Running a play. Hitting the cut. Make the defense pay for a mistake. If he continues to do that, he will go down as one of the greats.”

Mighty words from a student of the game. Strong words from one of the most respected players in the NBA—words that in a vacuum seem to be more hyperbole than anything else.

But think about this for a second:

When watching highlights of Jordan and other stars of the past, how many times did we see them dominate in their away uniforms? Jordan, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson, among others, took a great deal of comfort in the fact that they could destroy the hopes of their opponents on the road in May and June. Without the roaring crowd at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Curry did just that on Saturday night. He played off the energy, took his game to an entirely new level, and now has his team on the brink of playing for the NBA title.

In the moment, we don’t understand when history is presented in front of us. It takes time to realize the brilliance we have witnessed. Curry’s performance on Saturday night is no different. It will have staying power, no matter what happens in the remainder of the playoffs. And if the Warriors cap off this season with a NBA title, one of the greatest teams to ever play can look back to Saturday as its defining moment.

Photo: USA Today Sports