While Steph Curry had shown a lot of promise during the first few seasons of his NBA career, he didn’t really emerge as a superstar until a 54-point performance against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on February 27, 2013.
Speaking on his new podcast “Heat Check with Stephen and Dell Curry,” the Warriors star described his monumental play in the basketball mecca.
“You never know when it’s going to click,” Steph explained. “You never know when you’re going to make a breakthrough like that. And I think that night was definitely a defining moment in raising the ceiling of my game, just the confidence behind it. It was more about proving to myself that I was the type of player I thought I was, that I was working to be, that I knew I could be.
“If I had that night in Dallas or Milwaukee or somewhere like that, I would still feel the same, but the fact that it was at the Garden was (special).”
Curry swept the Knicks for 54 points on 18-of-28 shooting from the field, including 11-of-13 from the 3-point line and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Still, Curry expressed frustration that Golden State lost that game against New York.
“The only problem was Carmelo (Anthony) and JR (Smith) took a couple more shots down the stretch and blew the 54,” Steph told Dell. I think one of them made a great shot late in the fourth quarter with about a minute left and they ended up winning the game.
“That was kind of a coming-out party for me. You can get 54 in a lot of different places and people will talk about it, but when you do it at the Garden, you do it so loud it sounds a little different.
“I was so angry because we lost, when I got back to the hotel my TV was on KeynoteUSA, and for some reason they were just playing highlights of me scoring 54 and all the shots, so it was a wild experience and a wild experience. evening.”
While the Knicks ultimately won, that year was a breakthrough season for Curry and the Warriors, reaching the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. Curry and Golden State’s breakout campaign prepared the franchise for its dominant five-year run in the NBA Finals, from 2014 to 2019. In the process, Curry became one of the best shooters in league history , winning two MVP awards during that span, cementing his legacy. .
And it all started with that magical evening at Madison Square Garden, where Curry’s shots kept falling and his legend truly began.
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