MVP Curry Wins for Warriors in Over time

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Stephen Curry nailed a three-pointer in overtime and gestured to the crowd, exclaiming over and over: “I’m back! I’m back!”

Curry returned from a sprained right knee to score an NBA-record 17 points in overtime, finishing with 40 as the Warriors rallied to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semi-finals with a 132-125 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.

And then on Tuesday, to no one’s great surprise, he was named the NBA MVP for a second year running. Curry swept all 131 first-place votes, including 130 from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters and one from the fan vote. Curry is the 11th player to win back-to-back MVP awards.

“I love this game, I love playing and love competing. And really, really missed being out there with my team-mates,” Curry said. “To help our team get a win tonight and in that fashion, that was a good feeling in that moment to be back on the floor and playing.”

Playing for the first time since he was injured in Game 4 of the first-round series against Houston, Curry was rusty for three quarters and sensational down the stretch after the Warriors trailed by as much as 16 points.

Originally expected to play about 25 minutes off the bench, Curry picked up a heavier workload in the second half after Shaun Livingston, who had been starting in his absence, was ejected in the second quarter after arguing a call and picking up two technical fouls.

The Warriors can win the series Wednesday night at home in Game 5. A news conference announcing Curry’s award is scheduled for 5pm ET in Oakland on Tuesday.

Canada is mad as hell at Dwyane Wade, America, and we might not take it anymore

Curry was followed in the vote by Kawhi Leonard of San Antonio, LeBron James of Cleveland and Oklahoma City pair Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Curry’s Warriors team-mate Draymond Green was seventh.

Damian Lillard finished with 36 points and 10 assists for Portland.

Curry’s fast-break lay-up gave the defending NBA champions a 120-118 lead with 2:21 left in the extra period. He followed with a three-pointer, strutting and pumping his fist in celebration.

“You knew he’d catch his rhythm eventually,” Klay Thompson said. “He’s probably the best player in the world, the best shooter of all-time. He was getting good looks. We’ll take those all day.”

Harrison Barnes’ layup extended the lead to 125-118 and Portland couldn’t catch up. Thompson finished with 23 for the Warriors.

Curry finally made his first three of the game to give the Warriors a 103-100 lead with 4:35 left in regulation, but Portland was ahead in the final minute before Barnes tied it at 111-all with a three-pointer with 51 seconds left. Both Lillard and Curry missed to force the OT.

Curry led the Warriors to an NBA-record 73 wins in the regular season, a year after leading the team to its first NBA championship in 40 years. He averaged just over 30 points per game this season.

“Remarkable,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “I mean, he looked fresh. He had his rhythm. He made tough shots, he made nice passes, he fought through screens. Obviously 17 points in overtime. It was a hell of a performance.”

The Trail Blazers narrowed the series to 2-1 on Saturday night when Lillard scored 40 points in a 120-108 Portland victory while Golden State was still without its star guard. The Blazers became the only team to defeat the Warriors twice this season.

Curry came off the bench with 5:56 left in the first quarter and Portland up 16-2. His only points in the quarter came off a pair of jumpers before he went back to the bench.

Livingston felt he was fouled just before halftime and was thrown out after arguing with referee Scott Foster. The 12-year veteran guard was averaging 12.1 points and 5.5 assists in the playoffs. He had started six of the eight playoff games while Curry nursed his knee injury.

Portland led 67-57 at the half, scoring a franchise playoff-record 41 points in the second quarter alone. Lillard led all scorers with 17 points.

Curry said his legs were sore after the game.

“To be expected,” he said. “I pride myself in the work I put in in the offseason to get through the 82-game schedule and be fresh for the playoffs. I was off my feet for a week and some change. You obviously lose a little bit but deep down when I got the work the last four days and broke a sweat and put the time in, that helped me get through these 38 minutes.”

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Warriors Surpass Bulls Record

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Golden State Warriors have made NBA history with a record 73 wins in a season by beating Memphis Grizzlies.

The 125-104 win in Oakland means the defending champions surpassed the previous record of 72 set by Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in 1995-96.

Steph Curry also became the first to net more than 400 three-pointers in a season, taking his tally to 402.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played for the 1996 Bulls team, said: "I never thought anyone would break it."

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Curry Ties NBA Point Record

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Stephen Curry tied an NBA record Wednesday by making a three-pointer in his 127th consecutive regular-season game.

The reigning NBA MVP and three-point leader tied the record just 78 seconds into the Warriors’ win over Miami, on his first shot of the evening. He shares the mark with Atlanta’s Kyle Korver and has a chance to take the record outright when Golden State play at Orlando on Thursday.

“That’s a pretty outrageous number,” Curry said before Wednesday’s game. “When I was talking about it last year, I knew where he was. I was at 40 or 45. And I remember hearing what his number was. That’s crazy — every night you’re hitting a three. Whether you’re shooting well or not, you’re still finding a way to knock down at least one. The longevity of that record is pretty remarkable.”

Curry’s last game without a three-pointer was on 11 November 2014. He has made at least one in 202 of his past 203 games, and is on pace to smash the single-season record for three-pointers he established a year ago. “Steph is a lot better,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Which is scary, because he was the MVP last season.”

Curry entered Wednesday with 260 three-pointers this season, 88 more than anyone in the league. His teammate Klay Thompson came into the night No2 this season in threees, with 172.

Curry said he finds significance in the mark. “There’s no trophy for that,” Curry said. “But it’s a really cool situation to be in. That’s a big part of my game.”

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Warriors Curry Cavaliers

Steph Curry scored 35 points in three quarters, Andre Iguodala added 20 and Golden State returned to the arena where they won the NBA championship last season as they embarrassed the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-98 on Monday night.

The Warriors built a 30-point lead in the first half, pushed their advantage to 43 after half-time and bounced back from a shocking loss in Detroit over the weekend by winning their fifth straight over Cleveland.

Only a late flurry of points helped the Cavs avoid their worst home loss in franchise history. “They did what they wanted,” LeBron James said.

Curry made seven three-pointers — his last put the Warriors ahead by 40 late in the third quarter — and the reigning league MVP seemed right at home in Quicken Loans Arena, where the Warriors clinched their first title since 1975 last June. On Sunday, Curry said he hoped the visitor’s locker room “still smells a little bit like champagne.”

Curry, however, later downplayed that boast. “The last time I was there we had a trophy, we had champagne and we had goggles,” Curry said, recalling last season’s Game 6. “We had a good time.”

With Curry leading the charge, the Warriors overwhelmed the Cavs, who lost at Golden State 89-83 on Christmas Day and could do little to stop the defending champions.

James scored 16 for Cleveland, who went 5-1 on their longest road trip this season. And like last season’s finals, James didn’t have much help. Kyrie Irving had eight points on three-of-11 shooting and Kevin Love had three points in 21 forgettable minutes.

“Against the top teams you want to play well and we haven’t done that. We’re 0-3,” James said of Cleveland’s record against Golden State and San Antonio, the West’s top powers. “Tonight was an example of how far we have to go to win a championship.”

Even though Cleveland are healthier now than in December, an expected battle between two of the league’s best teams never materialized. This one belonged to Golden State from beginning to end.

A frustrating night for the Cavs bubbled over in the third quarter when JR Smith lowered his shoulder and charged into Harrison Barnes, flattening the Warriors forward. Smith, who arrived at the arena less than an hour before tip-off, was ejected.

Cavs coach David Blatt said he was not aware of Smith’s tardiness. “If that’s so, it’s not a good thing for sure,” Blatt said. Smith was gone when Cleveland’s locker room opened for reporters.

Draymond Green added 16 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds for the Warriors, who rested their starters in the fourth.

Curry quickly reminded an amped-up Cleveland crowd what he did to the Cavs last summer by burying a three-pointer on his first shot. He made three more long-range shots in the first quarter while the Warriors opened a 34-21 lead.

Golden State were just warming up.

Green’s three-pointer put the Warriors up by 16, and Curry scored a three-point play to give Golden State a 23-point lead. On Cleveland’s next possession, James was backing down in the lane when Curry came up from behind, stripped the ball and went the length of the floor for an easy layup to make it 57-32.

“They definitely played like champions,” Irving said.

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Kerr Explains Warriors Absence

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The Golden State Warriors coach, Steve Kerr, has clarified the reasons behind his leave of absence, explaining he stepped away from his duties due to complications from back surgery.

Kerr, who coached the Warriors to the championship last season, had an operation on his back in July. “I had a spinal fluid leak during the first surgery,” he told reporters on Sunday. “It’s very rare, it does happen occasionally, but it happens when there’s an accidental nick of the dura that surrounds the spinal cord. But I lost spinal fluid, took about a month to figure out what was going on, a lot of headaches, some other symptoms.”

Kerr had further surgery to address the problem at the start of September, which has caused his absence from the team. Kerr would not say when he would return to his duties on a full-time basis. “It’s a matter of your body sort of recalibrating,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s not like a sprained ankle, one to two weeks. There’s no telling. It’s a little bit open-ended, but everyone’s confident I’m going to be fine. That’s where I am. I’m not going to be put a timetable on when I’m going to come back.”

The announcement appears to be an effort to explain to fans why Kerr has not been coaching the Warriors in the lead-up to the new season, which starts later this month. “I wanted to just tell you guys what I’m going through, what’s happened. Because I think there’s kind of a grey area, people wondering what’s going on,” he said.

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Thunder Warrior Win all About Durant

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Three-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant is determined to become known as more than a one-dimensional player.

He took a big step in that direction Sunday night as he notched his first career triple-double with 25 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors 119-109.

"I really didn't care, to be honest. If it came, then that's cool. If it didn't, then just keep playing," Durant said. "It feels good to get one. Now, I guess I've got a little monkey off my back. I can just go out there and play."

Durant has endured some growing pains this season trying to improve his floor game, with a bump in his assist numbers coinciding with an increase in his turnovers, too. He came in averaging four turnovers per game, the fourth-worst in the league.

But after ending up with more turnovers than assists in each of his first five NBA seasons, Durant is starting to reverse that trend this season. He's also grabbing about two more rebounds per game than any other time in his career.

"There's going to be nights where I have to score 30. There's going to be nights where I have to have seven or eight assists," Durant said. "So, I'm just trying to be an all-around player and just continue to help my team win."

Durant turned it over just twice in this one and pumped his right fist after he set up Kevin Martin's 3-pointer with 4:57 to play for his 10th assist. The play also helped the Thunder hold on after Golden State cut a 21-point deficit to seven in the fourth quarter.

Russell Westbrook scored 30 points and Martin had 23 off the bench as Oklahoma City had a season-high 31 assists for the second straight game and a season high in points. Durant, Westbrook and Martin also combined for 22 assists.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 22 points, and David Lee chipped in 19 points and 10 rebounds.

"Durant's a pretty good passer to begin with and we decided we were going to load up a lot on him and Russell when they got the ball and make other guys beat us," Lee said. "The problem with loading up sometimes on him is that he's 6-11 and can see over it and make passes.

"I always considered him a pretty unselfish player, considering the amount of talent he has to score the basketball. I don't think that you would call him a selfish scorer by any means."

It looked for a while as though Durant might be stuck on nine assists -- matching his previous career best from a double-overtime game against Denver during his rookie season in Seattle.

Durant and Westbrook teamed up to score eight straight points late in the third quarter, with Westbrook's 3-pointer from the top of the key extending Oklahoma City's lead to 86-67. Durant had a chance to pick up his 10th assist before the end of the third period, but instead kept the ball on a fast break and wound up with a three-point play that put the Thunder ahead 94-73.

He started the fourth quarter on the bench, but got a chance to come back in when Oklahoma City's reserves let the lead start slipping away.

Coach Scott Brooks put his All-Stars back in with 8:18 left, after Curry's 3-pointer drew Golden State to 101-88. Nick Collison used a nifty touch pass off an offensive rebound to set up Serge Ibaka's layup, and Durant assisted on Martin's 3 on the next trip as Oklahoma City stemmed the tide.

"Some guys can just pass, some guys can just shoot, some guys can just rebound. Obviously, with Kevin, he can do many things on the floor and we always have to challenge him because we don't know how good he will end up being," Brooks said.

Brooks said he doesn't want Durant to become a passer, but rather a play-maker.

"Every year for the next 100 years, he's going to be an MVP-type calibre player, and this is what MVP players do," Brooks said. "They make your team better, you win games and you do everything. You fill the stat sheet.

"You don't want to be a guy that just scores 35 and the team doesn't have success."

Carl Landry had 14 points and Jarrett Jack scored 12 for Golden State, which lost despite shooting 52 percent from the field. Warriors reserve Richard Jefferson pulled himself out of the game late in the first quarter after straining his right calf, and he did not return.

The Warriors wiped away an early seven-point deficit to go up 32-31 in the second quarter but Eric Maynor answered with a 3-pointer to start a 19-6 response that put Oklahoma City ahead to stay.

"They're the reigning Western Conference champions playing at home, playing well. You want to compete and find a way to beat them and in the end they shoot the ball 13-for-20 from 3. You give up 119 points," Curry said. "That's not going to cut it."

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