Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors hope to repeat history when they take the court for an encore performance Monday night in San Francisco against the rival Sacramento Kings.
Curry bombed in a career-high 62 points Sunday in a 137-122 home win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 62 points were not only an NBA season-high and eight points more than Curry had ever scored before, but they were the most by a Warrior since Rick Barry went for 64 points in 1974.
Curry topped 50 points for the seventh time in his career, shooting 18-for-31 overall, 8-for-16 on 3-pointers and 18-for-19 at the line.
The eight 3-pointers vaulted Curry, who began the season 4-for-20 in his first two games, into third place among the NBA’s leaders in threes this year with 26, trailing Paul George (30) and CJ McCollum (28).
“Just a brilliant performance,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr gushed afterward. “We’ve seen Steph do so many things. It’s just a privilege to coach him. It really is. Not just because of his talent, but because of the way he carries himself and the way he leads. We are incredibly blessed as an organization to have Steph leading the way.”
If Curry took time to celebrate any of his previous 50-point performances, it was hard to tell his next time out. He has averaged 30.3 in those games, with the Warriors riding the former two-time Most Valuable Player to wins in each of the last four outings.
The Warriors and Kings will be meeting for the first time this season, with Sacramento having swept last year’s season series 3-0. That came on the heels of a 4-0 whitewashing by Golden State the previous season.
When last seen in Northern California, the Kings were riding high following a 125-115 home win over Denver that was their third victory in four games to open the season.
But a two-game stay in Houston resulted in a pair of losses, putting Sacramento in the position of needing a win in San Francisco in order to avoid an 0-3 trip.
To add injury to insult, impressive rookie Tyrese Haliburton suffered a bone bruise on his left wrist in Thursday’s opener in Houston. He missed the rematch Saturday and has been ruled out of Monday’s game as well.
The 20-year-old has scored in double figures in four of his five NBA games, including the last three. He also found time for four or more assists four times and five steals over his last two outings.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant,” the Iowa State product said after Thursday’s loss to Houston, “but I worked for this. So I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m surprised or anything like that.”
The Kings missed his offense in Saturday’s 102-94 loss to the Rockets, which came on the heels of a 122-119 defeat. Sacramento shot just 38.9 percent in the rematch and misfired on 19 of 28 3-point attempts.
A road game against Golden State means a homecoming for Kings forward Harrison Barnes, who helped ignite a three-title run in five years for the Warriors when he played a key role on the 2015 championship team.
He averaged 18.0 points in the three wins over Golden State last season, shooting 20-for-35 (57.1 percent) from the field and 6-for-14 (42.9 percent) on 3-pointers.
–Field Level Media
