OAKLAND, Calif. _ Twenty-six feet from the hoop, Kevin Durant stone-walled Stephen Curry's man on a screen. Curry was dodging and weaving and searching for any pocket of air to fire up any semi-reasonable 3-point shot.
Everyone in the building knew what was coming, except, apparently, the Pelicans defense. Anthony Davis, Durant's man, sagged back into the paint, 15 feet from Curry's curl. Durant set a sturdy screen, Draymond Green delivered the pass and Curry, springing open, caught, turned and fired. Bang. It was Curry's 13th made 3, an NBA record for a single game.
On Monday night, during an otherwise underwhelming 116-106 win over the 0-7 Pelicans, Curry's greatness was needed. And it came just one game after it couldn't be found.
Against the Lakers on Friday night, Curry went 0-of-10 from deep, snapping his NBA record streak of 157 straight games with a made 3-pointer during a blowout loss in Los Angeles.
Against the Pelicans, Curry started his new streak early. Less than five minutes in, Curry nailed a 30-footer. A few minutes later, he drilled back-to-back 3s, giving him three in the first quarter.
No one else could find a rhythm from the outside. Andre Iguodala clanged all four of his 3s. Klay Thompson's deep struggles continued. He was 9-of-13 inside the line _ nailing a batch of smooth mid-range jumpers _ but went 2-of-7 from deep. Outside of Curry, the Warriors went 3-of-18 from 3, many of those far more wide open than most of Curry's 17 attempts.
But the two-time MVP was clearly feeling it. So he started letting them fly from awkward angles amid a sea of bodies. After fumbling the ball ahead in transition, Curry had a second-quarter transition, off-balance, one-footed leaner with 20 seconds still left on the shot clock that went down.
By halftime, he'd hit six. By late in the third quarter, he'd hit eight. But an NBA record didn't seem plausible. Or at least it didn't seem to be on anyone's mind in the building.
Late in the third quarter, Curry pump-faked a 3 and Davis went flying. But the league's scariest shot-blocker couldn't help himself. Davis reached back in search of a no-look swat. Curry caught him, swept his arms through Davis' left hand in a shooting motion. Three free throws were surely coming. But the whistle never blew.
Curry went ballistic. The mouth guard went flying. A technical was called _ only the 10th of Curry's career. Moments later, still riled up, Curry seem determined to get back the three points he was just stripped.
He dodged through a screen, fired over a contest and popped his ninth, then let out a roar that seemed directed at the nearest referee. Moments later, Curry nailed his 10th, this off one of Golden State's better plays of the night.
Isolated in the mid-post, Durant pulled the defense his direction. As he backed toward the hoop and they collapsed toward him, Durant fired it cross-court to Thompson. New Orleans, apparently unaware of who's hot and who's not, ran Thompson off the line and left Curry room to breathe. A swing pass and a 3 were dropped in a flash. He had 10 before the third quarter was over.
Then the Warriors lackluster play came into effect. Normally, if Curry has 10 3s, Golden State is smashing the victimized team. Curry will sit the fourth and the record will stand. But the Warriors defense was a step behind all night and the rest of the team couldn't find any type of offensive rhythm. So the Pelicans' deficit hovered in single digits.
Curry had to return with six minutes left in the fourth to put it away. With three 3s in a flurry, he did, setting the record and sealing the game with that straight-away bullet, set up by the Durant screen and Davis' laziness. It forced the Pelicans to call timeout.
As Curry went to the bench, the crowd chanted "MVP." The jumbotron showed him getting congratulated by his team. Curry went to sit next to Durant during the timeout huddle.
"Oh, that's the record?" Durant said to whoever had just told him, then patted Curry on the head. "Good job, boy."
