Steph Curry
signed this Sunday the best performance in his history in a seventh game of a 'playoff' series: 50 points in the 120-100 victory of the
Golden State Warriors
at the home of the Sacramento Kings with which the champions of The NBA advanced to the Western Conference semifinals.
After blowing the chance to pass and putting the standings in jeopardy after the loss in San Francisco on Friday,
the Warriors needed a piece of art from their brightest star to finish off a Kings
who lived a dream season, in which they qualified third in the West and returned to the postseason after 17 years of waiting.
Curry signed the best performance of his career in the 'playoffs
' and led the Warriors to the next round, in which they will be rivals of the Los Angeles Lakers of LeBron James, who eliminated the Memphis Grizzlies.
His mark in a seventh game bettered Kevin Durant's 48 points in 2021
, Dominique Wilkins' 47 in 1988 and Sam Jones' 47 in 1963.
The Warriors legend finished his game with fifty points and twenty-of-38 shooting
.
To them he added eight rebounds and six assists, in an afternoon in which his team's second best scorer was Andrew Wiggins with 17 points.
Curry enlarges his legend: 50 points and go to the Eastern Conference semis
Twenty of the Warriors' 56 points in the first half were in the form of Curry, who made eight of his fifteen shots, with four three-pointers, and sustained his team in the most difficult moment of Klay Thompson, who only scored one of his ten attempts from the field.
In the Kings, De'Aaron Fox suffered, with only eight points and many misses (3 of 8 shooting), but it was Sabonis who stepped forward with 16 valuable points to give his team two points ahead in a game of maximum balance.
It was in the third period when the Warriors shot up their level at the rate of a stellar Curry, starring from the goal, but also with tackles in traffic and acrobatic baskets.
One of them, with an added foul, gave the Warriors a 67-62 advantage who continued to step on the accelerator and dominate the rebounds.
They barely lost a ball in the third quarter and Thompson delivered a final blow to the table with a three-pointer, and free kick included, that made it 91-81 to the light.
Klay went from seven points scored in the first half to ten in just the third period, going 3-for-4 on shots.
He finished his game with 16 points.
It was a psychological blow for the Kings, who couldn't keep up with the defending champions' scoring pace and completely melted down in the fourth quarter, when the Warriors reached the twenty-point margin at 111-91.
Curry laughs after his historic performance. Photo: AP Photo
Curry continued to dominate and despaired the Kings with a tremendous triple for 100-83 with 7.43 minutes to play that ended the options of the locals.
He was the absolute protagonist of a historic afternoon for American basketball, in a duel in which Kevon Looney also gave a valuable contribution with eleven points and 21 rebounds.
In the Kings, Domantas Sabonis scored 22 points, with eight rebounds and seven assists, while Fox did not exceed 16. EFE