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Warriors guard Stephen Curry drives against the Kings’ Trey Lyles during the first quarter of Game 7 of a first-round series at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Sunday.
Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
SACRAMENTO — Midway through the second quarter of theGolden State Warriors’Game 7 playoff battle against the Sacramento Kings, with the Warriors trailing by three,Stephen Currymissed back-to-back free throws. It was a rare occurrence for the man with the NBA’s all-time best free-throw percentage.
It was potentially unsettling for Curry, considering what was at stake. The Warriors were staring at their own mortality, facing the possible end of their dynasty, and looking to Curry to somehow save them against a young, tough team.
Spoiler alert: He did, scoring50 in a 120-100 winthat sends the Warriors into the second round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers.
不幸的是,双小姐解雇你p the already bonkers Golden 1 Center crowd, since every fan in the house receives a giant Crumbl Cookie whenever an opponent misses two freebies.
The next time Curry stepped to the line, the TV cameras zoomed in on his face and caught him smiling, almost laughing. After those two misses, Curry had huddled with Warriors’ assistant and personal confidant Bruce Fraser on the bench. Still fresh in Curry’s mind were three free throws he clanged in the previous game, a disastrous Warriors loss. Curry was bummed about the misses, but he told Fraser he wasn’t going to overthink it.
“Attitude can manifest a lot of things,” Curry said after the game, when asked about that huge smile. He added, “The smile was intentional. Just try to be in the present.”
So Curry not only beat the Kings physically (running his defenders to exhaustion) and mentally (by usingSteveKerr’s clever game plan to spread and attack the Kings’ defensive holes), but he also beat ’em emotionally. He out-cooled the NBA’s new cool kids, the plucky Kings, the surprise team of the season.
You could even say Curry beat the Kings metaphysically, by going to (as I check the dictionary) “a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses.”
Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard, who has seen Curry soar to the heavens many times, put an earthier spin on it.
“Steph Curry you filthy animal lol,” Lillard tweeted. “He just packed up a very good team ... in a very tough building.”
Kerr called Curry’s performance “sublime.”
It was a show for the ages. There’s no time now to categorize Curry’s history, but this may have been his piece de resistance, his magnum opus. He scored 50 points, becoming the only player in NBA history to score 50 in a playoff Game 7. He hit seven 3-pointers and had eight rebounds and six assists — and one teensy turnover.
It was sheer brilliance under intense pressure. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
这个游戏巩固了咖喱的最在的地方tertaining and clutch athletes of all time. He almost surely didn’t finish in the top five in the regular-season NBA MVP voting, but what player has been more valuable in the playoffs?
I’m no conspiracy theorist, but you know the NBA is desperately hoping the Warriors make it to the Finals. No athlete in America is more watchable and entertaining. Or more lethally effective under pressure.
Last season, when the Warriors were the surprise NBA champs, Curry was spectacular in Game 4 of the Finals with 43 points in Boston, when the Warriors were down 2-1. In the deciding Game 6, in Boston, he scored 34.
In this series, Curry averaged 33.7 and never scored fewer than 28.
Sunday, the Warriors knew they needed MVP Curry, and he knew it. His high mark for field-goal attempts this season was 28. On Sunday, he took 38 shots. His previous playoff high was 35 attempts.
This from an aging Curry, who at 35 is a decade older than most of the Kings. And he’s leading an aging team. Last season the Memphis Grizzlies mocked the Warriors for being old, and after Game 6 of this series, Kings guard Malik Monk bragged how much younger and fresher his guys are.
This series was supposed to be about two ships passing in the night — the Kings bobbing along jauntily, the Warriors sinking. Who’s the kid now?
It wasn’t like the Kings didn’t throw the kitchen sink at Curry. Kings head coach Mike Brown said before the game that his team had to be physical, and had to outrun the Warriors. The Kings dogged Curry full court, tight, and double-teamed him when he crossed midcourt. They leaned, grabbed, pushed, held. It’s all legal if the refs don’t see it.
“All series, I felt like Steph was sort of playing with a weighted vest,” Fraser said. “They were leaning on him. They were smart, Mike’s smart, knowing, ‘Don’t let him move, and hold him.’ He was playing under a lot of pressure and duress most of the series, but you knew at some point he’d break loose.”
Fraser got a good feeling Sunday during pregame warm-ups. He works one-on-one with Curry and kind of takes his temperature.
“He was very focused today, very focused,” Fraser said. “He was loose, but focused, more so than I’ve seen him. He was dancing in warm-ups, singing some of the songs they were playing (over the PA system). That’s not usual. … It wasn’t like a loose and no big deal kind of warm-up, it was loose but determined.”
Once the game started, it was as if Curry was playing a game of H-O-R-S-E, taking and making shots with increasingly higher degrees of difficulty. Curry loves H-O-R-S-E, and when he wins, he’s a notorious gloater. Near the end of the game, he pantomimed lighting the Golden 1 Center’s famous victory beam. He may have used it after the game to light a cigar.
This was a hugely emotional win for the Warriors, by far the most emotional first-round series win in this nine-season run. When it was over, the Warriors came into their locker room giddy as little kids. Kerr walked through the tunnel shouting, “Hell, yeah! Hell, yeah!”
This game was huge. Curry was huger.
“It’s just so amazing,” said Fraser, who has been along for the entire decade-long ride. “It’s like every time there’s a big moment, he’s there.”
What a crazy coincidence.
Reach Scott Ostler: sostler@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @scottostler
