The Golden State Warriors continued to take advantage of a soft stretch-run schedule with a 121-115 win in Orlando on Thursday, but it wasn’t easy. The Warriors trailed by 14 at halftime and got down by as many as 17, but Stephen Curry saved the day with 56 points and 12 3-pointers.
Curry was hot throughout the first half, but it was his three-quarter court heave at the end of the first half that set the tone for a Warriors third-quarter explosion reminiscent of the good ol’ days.
With 22 points in less than 10 minutes, Curry outscored the Magic by himself in the third quarter.
This is the third time that Curry has made at least 12 3-pointers in a single game, tying him with his former Splash Brother Klay Thompson for the most in history. Curry’s career high for 3s in a game is 13 — and he was tracking to hit that mark and very possibly break Thompson’s all-time record of 14 when he made his ninth 3 halfway through the third quarter. On top of that, Curry became the second player in NBA history to score 55-plus points while hitting at least 12 3-pointers, joining Damian Lillard’s 71-point outburst with 13 triples from 2023.
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And in this one, Golden State needed every one of Curry’s buckets. Jimmy Butler was a no-show with five points on seven shots. Quentin Post was sensational with 18 points and was a big part of Golden State’s run to start the third quarter, but other than that nobody scored more than Draymond Green’s 12 and Moses Moody’s 10.
Orlando cut Golden State’s lead to six with under five minutes to play, only for Curry to come down and bang his 10th 3 to stretch it right back to eight. With under three minutes to go, Orlando cut the deficit to four, but Curry answered with his 11th three. And then with under two minutes to play, Orlando got it down to two, only for Curry to knock down his 12th 3.
Every single time Orlando threatened to steal this game, Curry stole it right back. It was a performance for the ages, the 14th time Curry has scored at least 50 in his career and the first time this season. In fact, this was the first time Curry has even scored 40 this season, as hard as that is to believe.
Even harder to believe? This performance comes on the nine-year anniversary of Curry’s iconic pull-up 3 from the moon to stun the Thunder on February 27, 2016.
The Warriors have now won five straight and seven of their last eight to move within one game of a top-six seed in the West with 23 games and one of the league’s easiest schedules remaining.
