The first day of the New Year opened red, the Warriors defeated the Rockets 122-108 away, and Stephen Curry, who had been in the doldrums for a long time, broke out strongly, scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter, surpassing Kobe Bryant 20+ times in a single quarter, dominating the first place in history, once again making the MVP's voice resound through the away stadium.
Turning away fans against each other is a treatment that few people in the NBA can enjoy, but for Curry, it is no stranger. Not to mention the peak of the heyday of winning the MVP, breaking the best record in history, reaching the finals for five consecutive years and winning the championship three times, even at the beginning of the season, Curry also blocked the killing Buddha.
On November 17, barclays center, November 19 Fieldhouse, Curry has relied on his own fiery touch, against the sky performance, let the away fans regardless of their own players' feelings, for him to offer him MVP cheers, at that time Curry, is indeed the best value player of the season.
As of Nov. 19, Curry averaged 29.5 points per game in the league, in addition to 6.1 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.7 steals, an average of 13.5 three-pointers per game, and still maintained a 41.9% shooting rate.
Under his leadership, the Warriors led the league with 13 wins and 2 losses, and many key data such as defensive efficiency, net win rate, assist rate, and true shooting percentage were also the league's first, offensive and defensive performance, which could not help but remind people of the season when Curry won MVP for the first time in 2014-15.
However, just when people felt that Curry's third MVP trophy in his career had been stable, his personal state took a sharp turn and suddenly fell into a long "freezing period". At first, people thought that Curry was just facing the historical three-point record with some imbalance of mentality, but later it was soon discovered that even after being crowned the three-point king of history, his feelings still did not recover.
If you take playing the Cavaliers on November 19 as the first point in time, and surpass Aaron at Madison Square Garden on December 15 as the second, dividing Curry's game this season into three stages, then:
In the first stage, Curry averaged 29.5 points per game and 41.9% from three-point range; in the second stage, he averaged 23.6 points per game and 37.5% from three-point range; and in the third stage (as of the previous game against the Nets), his average score per game, although slightly recovered, to 24.1 points, but the three-point shooting rate continued to decline, only 33.6%.
You know, Curry is regarded as the number one shooter in history because his three-point shooting is both prolific and efficient, with a career three-point shooting rate of 42.8%, and there has never been a season before this season when the three-point shooting rate is less than 40% (the 2019-20 season only played 5 games due to injury does not count). Therefore, such a poor projection performance has caused a lot of questions about Curry's old age and inability.
Curry's struggling state not only directly affects the Warriors' performance, allowing them to be taken over by the Sun, but also makes Curry's own "status" in the hearts of the media, fans, and even peers shake - in addition to the suspense that began to appear in the MVP battle this season, in the MVP voting process, Curry also went from the first stage of the vote king, to the later surpassed by James, and then the gap was getting bigger and bigger.
In the All-Star player voting round, Curry also received only 142 votes, which is not only lower than Durant's 207 votes and James's 171 votes, but also lower than Alphabet Brother (183), Embiid (158), Jokic (167) and DeRozan (155). And these people are almost all the main opponents of Curry's competition for MVP.
Because of his unique style of play, Curry's game has particularly high physical requirements. The long NBA season, for Curry, is like a marathon, at a certain moment, he will encounter a "difficult period", and lack of physical fitness will directly affect the feel of the shooting, so it is not surprising that the performance fluctuates for a while.
But Curry's downturn this time has been too long to worry. Especially recently, the Warriors' performance as a whole has begun to pick up, just after winning five consecutive wins, but Curry still feels cold in the five games he has won — averaging 20.2 points per game, shooting only 34.7% and 28.6% from three-point range. Therefore, everyone is looking forward to a game that will allow Curry to completely regain his long-lost feel and confidence.
Against this backdrop, Curry ushered in today's outbreak.
In this game, Curry scored 19 points and 9 assists on 6-of-13 shooting in the first three quarters, leading the Warriors to a huge 17-point lead at one point. But the young Rockets showed a tenacious side, forcing the point difference to single digits before the end of the third quarter, and after the start of the fourth quarter, they played a small 7-0 climax to chase the score to more than 5 points, which forced the strongest Curry.
Curry used a signature retreat step three-pointer 9:04 before the final game to announce the arrival of the "killing moment", and in the next 3 minutes and 08 seconds, he hit all 5 long-range shots, and one person arranged all 14 points of the Warriors, instantly stabilizing the situation!
At 3:49, Curry won a jump ball with Rockets forward Tate, dialed the ball to Clay, then suddenly turned around wiggins' cover, received Clay's return pass, opened his hand at a 45-degree angle on the left, hit his seventh three-pointer of the game, pulled the score back to 113-104, and completely shattered the Rockets' remaining morale.
This is Curry's 19th point in this section, in the next few minutes, the victory and defeat have basically lost suspense, the only mystery waiting to be revealed is whether Curry can get another point, complete the 37th career single quarter 20+ performance, surpass Bryant (previously tied with Curry 36 times), enjoy the first place in history.
1 minute and 23 seconds before the final game, the mystery was revealed, Tate's free throw sent Curry to the free throw line, Curry steadily made two free throws, and the single quarter score reached 21 points, while the full score also officially broke through the 40 mark.
In the whole game, Curry shot 13 of 23, including 7 of 14 from outside the three-point line and 7 of 8 from the free throw line, in addition to completing his first 40+ performance in 2022, he also contributed 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, and only 1 turnover. When he was on the floor, the Warriors outperformed their opponents by 18 points, a statistic that was also the first in the team.
In fact, Curry's gravity has never disappeared, even in the past two months, Curry's hand feels so cold, his personal offense is so inefficient, he averages +9.8 per game net win score is still the first in the league!
As Thompson's form returns, Wiggins continues to awaken, and Poole continues to blend in, the offensive burden on Curry's shoulders will ease, but when the game enters the decisive moment, the Warriors still need him to hammer out from outside the three-point line.
New Year and new atmosphere, I hope that Curry's unhappiness in the Year of the Ox will stop here, and the tiger will start at the beginning of the year, and it will shine again!