Written by Benjamin Hoffman at NyTimes.com
Stephen Curry heard the criticism last week — that his success was due in part to a lack of legitimate perimeter defense in the N.B.A., that today’s stars do not play tough enough to stop him.
To put it bluntly, no defense in history could have stopped Curry at the end of the Golden State Warriors’ game at Oklahoma City on Saturday night.
The score was tied, 118-118, when Golden State’s Andre Iguodala pulled down a rebound off a missed jumper by the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook with about six seconds remaining in overtime. The Warriors could have called a timeout to set up their offense, but Iguodala instead tossed the ball to Curry, who casually made his way across midcourt. Before the Thunder could put together anything resembling a defense against him, Curry launched the ball toward the hoop from more than 32 feet out.
Swish. In addition to beating the rival Thunder, Curry tied the record for the most 3-pointers in a game (12) and broke his own record for most in a season (he has 288 with 24 games to play).
“What was that, 40 feet?” Golden State’s Draymond Green asked reporters after the game. “That’s absurd.”
To put the shot into perspective, consider that the 3-point arc is approximately 23 feet 9 inches from the basket. By launching the ball so quickly, Curry took the shot well before Andre Roberson, a stout defender for the Thunder, could get back to defend him.
Curry finished with 46 points and in his last four games has averaged 43.8 points a game while shooting 61.1 percent from 3-point range, a rate that was actually better than the 60.8 percent he had shot from the field over all.
For the season, Curry is leading the N.B.A. in scoring at 30.7 points a game, and he appears to be a lock to be the eighth player in N.B.A. history to complete a so-called 50-40-90 season — shooting 50 percent or better from the field, 40 percent or better from 3-point range and 90 percent or better from the free-throw line.
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