Who ordered the GOAT Curry?

PLUS: Denver makes a statement and the Heat storm the Garden.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Before last season, Stephen Curry had a reputation as being a superstar player that didn’t necessarily elevate his game in the postseason. That was a mostly unfair knock tied to the fact that he didn’t have any Finals MVPs to go with his three championship rings and two regular season MVPs. Obviously, Curry erased that critique in the Warriors’ 2022 title run, especially given how he was the main character of the Finals against the Celtics. His C.V. was already basically unimpeachable. Winning that title the way he (and the Warriors) did answered any questions.

No one is asking, and yet Curry is still giving us all the answers. To wit: after the Warriors were dazed in a close-out opportunity at home on Friday, Curry came out in Game 7 in Sacramento with a spark, hunting his own shot from tip. He ended up setting a new scoring record for a Game 7 with 50.

An effortless 50, despite all of the Kings’ focus being completely on him.

The only other Warriors who truly had a plus game was Kevon Looney, who broke the Kings’ back in the third quarter with seven offensive rebounds (yes, in a single quarter). Sacramento entered the third with a 2-point lead despite Curry scoring 20 in the first half, but their inability to get rebounds and get out in transition limited their offensive spark and gave Curry the runway to put their season to bed.

Beyond that, it was almost entirely Curry: torching every defender the Kings threw at him, every scheme Mike Brown sketched up to trap him, from every spot on the court. He determined that the Warriors were going to win or lose the game on his back, and that’s what happened. It’s right up there with his Game 4 performance from the 2022 Finals as his best playoff game ever. That night put the Finals at 2-2, avoiding a nightmarish 3-1 scenario. But without his Game 7 performance, the Warriors go out in the first round in their title defense.

In any case, he now has two all-timer playoff performance, building that top-5 of all-time case for himself. He might already be there. And the playoffs, I suppose, are just getting started.