Tuesday night was supposed to be all about Klay Thompson, who was returning to face the Warriors for the first time since signing with the Mavericks this past summer. Thompson got his tribute — a rousing one at that — and his standing ovation and he even went out and drained six 3-pointers on his way to 22 points. But when it was all said and done, it was Stephen Curry who wound up stealing the show.
Curry finished with 37 points, nine assists and five 3-pointers in leading the now 9-2 Warriors to a thrilling 120-117 win over the Mavericks, who fell to 5-6 on the season. With the Warriors down by six with 3:29 to play, Curry personally outscored the Mavericks 12-3 the rest of the way, taking matters into his own hands with the type of on-ball creation for which Steve Kerr naysayers have long been clamoring.
“This is what the NBA’s about,” Curry told TNT’s Allie LaForce. “Competition. No matter what the sound bites were leading up to the game, we knew there would be a lot of emotions, but both teams wanted to win. It felt like a playoff-type atmosphere, back and forth, great players making great plays, both sides, that’s why we love the competition. We love being out here.”
That pretty much says it all. Above all else, even above his extraordinary skill and revolutionary shooting, Curry is, always has been, and always will a competitor of the absolute fiercest degree. On a night when Thompson was supposed to be getting his flowers, Curry said to hell with the sentimental sunshine and went looking for blood.
Thompson — whose competitive juices run just as hot as Curry’s — certainly did his part in rising to the occasion. Coming into the game he had missed 11 of his last 13 3s, but if you thought Thompson was going to do anything other than start splashing away in a game like this, you need to check this man’s résumé.
“Stone-cold killers” is how Kobe Bryant once described Curry and Thompson, and he was right. A game like this is made for players cut from the most competitive cloth, and neither disappointed. But here’s the deal: Curry is just better than Thompson. He was better than him all those years in Golden State, and he’s better than him now. That’s no knock on Thompson, who is the second-greatest shooter to ever play in the NBA and is a lock for the Hall of Fame. Curry is just different. Still. At 36 years old.
He proved it again on Tuesday, when the Warriors outscored the Mavericks by 24 points over the 35 minutes he was on the floor. Do the math, and you’ll find that Dallas outscored the Warriors by 21 points over the 13 minutes that Curry didn’t play. He was the difference, but he wasn’t alone in stepping up in a massive way in a massive game for the Warriors.
Draymond Green was sensational with a stat-stuffing 11 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three steals, two blocks and zero turnovers, and he was a defensive monster. He made perhaps the plays of the game inside the final three minutes when he first drew a charge on Daniel Gafford (though he was probably in the restricted area if the Mavericks weren’t out of challenges) before denying Gafford at the rim on the following possession. Watching Green pick apart defenses that recklessly chase Curry around screens with backdoor dimes for layups will never get old.
You could run through a whole list of Warriors were contributed in a major way to this win, as has been the case all season for a team that has 11-12 guys earning meaningful nightly minutes. In addition to Klay, the Mavericks got 52 points from Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic while Gafford and Derek Lively III both played big inside.
But in the end, none of those guys was the reason this was about as entertaining an NBA game as you’re likely to see in November. It wasn’t because it was an NBA Cup matchup, either, or because it was Klay’s first time back in Chase Center in an opposing uniform. As has always been the case, all of that paled in comparison to the show that is Steph Curry, who took a night that was supposed to belong to his friend and gleefully, thrillingly, outright ruthlessly stole it for himself.
