Enlarge image
A throw, a dance, a big grin: Stephen Curry combines accuracy and show elements
Photo:
Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
When Stephen Curry gets hot, something changes.
The ball that he is dribbling remains the same.
And the basket he throws at, too.
But while basketball is being
played
around him,
Curry
is
celebrating
basketball.
“It's really art.
There's something beautiful in there, ”said Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night of his superstar's performance.
"Nobody in the history of the game has ever done what they're doing."
Curry scored 49 points against the Philadelphia 76ers.
It was the eleventh time in a row that he reached more than 30 points.
No NBA player over the age of 33 has succeeded in doing this so far.
His five games with at least 40 points within a month are also unmatched for his age.
Curry, two-time MVP (2015, 2016) is in the shape of his life.
More than that, it is currently the NBA's elixir of life.
The best pitcher in history
The point guard can do one thing better than anyone else: throw.
Preferably from a distance.
Against the 76ers, he hit at least ten threesomes for the 21st time in his career.
Lonely record.
His team-mate Klay Thompson follows him in second place - with just five games.
Curry is undoubtedly one of the best long-range shooters in NBA history, but the "fascination of Curry" only partially describes it.
After all, it doesn't tell about the ease with which he plays, his little dances and jokes, his flair, and above all: about the ecstasy he causes among fans and fellow players.
In the NBA, of all places, with its giants, Stephen Curry - 1.91 meters "short" - is the most entertaining player.
And right now it seems more important than ever.
Enlarge image
Stephen Curry is the best long-range shooter in NBA history
Photo:
Mary Holt / USA TODAY Sports / REUTERS
The NBA is a show league; it thrives on stars and spectacles.
At the moment, however, she has problems: Not only are the arenas largely empty due to the corona, there are also a number of names that usually ensure good ratings are missing: LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Jamal Murray, Jimmy Butler, Donovan Mitchell, Klay Thompson - all hurt.
And these star failures are only the spearhead of an injury-ridden season.
Now that the play-offs are imminent (start on May 22nd) and many teams are switching to energy-saving mode, the league, which is already struggling with falling odds, is finally threatened with an entertainment drought - if it weren't for Stephen Curry, the current highlight machine.
Curry quota guarantee
The 33-year-old has established a new archetype of the playmaker, with significant strengths in throwing from distance and ball control.
If Curry is not guarded closely enough at the triple line, he immediately rises to the throw.
If he is again covered intensively, he used his rich arsenal of dribbling moves and body deception to shake off his defenders and finish near the basket.
Last Sunday, the Boston Celtics found no answer to this mix.
Curry scored 47 points, hit eleven of 19 three-pointers, plus a circus throw of the highest degree of difficulty.
The performance was garnished with the typical curry coolness: dance interludes, cheering gestures, jokes, broad grins.
The fact that the Warriors just lost the game (114: 119) should not have interested the majority of the audience.
2.49 million watched the curry show, the highest since early February.
Back then the Brooklyn Nets were playing against: Curry and the Warriors.
Three-way boom in the NBA
In the current month, the playmaker has 40.8 points per game.
He scored more than half of them by throwing from distance, his hit rate in three-pointers is - despite many difficult degrees - 50.3 percent.
To put it into perspective: The league average is 36.7 percent.
When Curry came into the league in 2009, the three was used differently.
More cautious.
A team dared an average of 18.1 distance throws per game.
Today there are almost twice as many (34.6).
Curry alone "took", as the basketball players say, 14.3 three-pointers per game this month.
Enlarge image
Stephen Curry is difficult to defend
Photo:
John Bazemore / AP
The fact that the players are increasingly betting on distance throws is not only due to Curry, but also.
He showed what is possible when you rethink the game.
If you take more threes than other throws, from dribbling, at full speed or from far behind the three-point line.
All of these throws have long been considered too difficult to be efficient.
Curry proved the opposite - and thus inspired a whole generation.
Young stars like Trae Young or Luka Doncic, but also contemporaries like James Harden or Damian Lillard - and even LeBron James - have elements in their playing that Curry has cultivated.
Curry alone is not enough for the Warriors
Curry's worth to the NBA is immense.
He is a basketball player who organically combines entertainment and effectiveness.
Nothing seems forced to him, he follows his flow.
When Kevin Durant played for Golden State from 2017 to 2019, not a better pitcher but a better player, Curry moved into the second tier without public lamentation.
He almost completely missed the 2019/2020 season due to an injury.
Now he's back - and he's more dominant than ever.
Curry recently overtook NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain and is now the best scorer in the Warriors' franchise history.
With 31.4 points per game, he also leads the league in scoring, and is also a hot MVP candidate.
Only the team success is likely to fail: The Warriors are ninth in the west, apart from Curry and without the injured Thompson, Golden State lacks the talent.
For the NBA, even that is good.
Because currently it looks like Curry is promoting the league's latest project: the Play-In-Tournament.
As of this year, only the first six teams of each conference are qualified for the play-offs.
Behind them, four teams are fighting in a knockout tournament for the remaining two tickets.
The new mode is controversial, but one thing is clear: where Stephen Curry plays, people will look.
