Written by Connor Letourneau at SFGate.com
The chorus arrived with 2:23 left in the game Monday night. As Stephen Curry took his seat during a timeout, a sellout Oracle Arena crowd of 19,596 rained “M-V-P!” down on the man who won the award the previous two seasons.
Curry had just set an NBA record with his 13th three-pointer, breaking the single-game mark he had shared with Kobe Bryantand Donyell Marshall. His long-range performance helped the Warriors stave off the Pelicans for a 116-106 win.
Three nights after snapping his NBA-record streak of 157 straight games with a three, Curry poured in a season-high 46 points on 16-of-26 shooting (13-of-17 from beyond the arc). Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant chipped in 24 and 22 points, respectively. Draymond Green had four points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and two blocks.
“This was a special night,” Curry said.
He began to eye the record around when he hit his ninth or 10th three-pointer. His team nursing a five-point lead with less than four minutes left, Curry netted three threes in a 70-second span to ice the victory. On the one that broke the record, facing two defenders, he hoisted the high-arcing trey from 26 feet.
As ball met net, fans erupted from their seats. Curry stomped his feet, bobbed his head and unleashed a roar. It had taken more than 9,000 games with the three-point line in the NBA for this feat to materialize.
“When he’s going off like that, you don’t really have to find him,” Green said. “He’ll find a way to get a shot off, that’s for sure.”
In Golden State’s lopsided loss Friday to the Lakers, Curry had failed to hit a three for the first time since Nov. 11, 2014. The only player to make 400 threes in a season concentrated in practice Sunday on regaining his trademark flow from deep.
Curry fired with the reckless abandon Monday that has long made him a household name. To set his latest record, he converted at least a few “bad” shots. Curry knifed through two defenders in the second quarter before pulling up for a 26-footer. The official box score gave it the accurate title of “running jump shot.”
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