‘I’m back’: The latest reminder Stephen Curry’s good at basketball
“I’m here,” Stephen Curry told nobody in particular and everybody at the same time. “I’m back.”
The announcement came after the NBA’s back-to-back MVP scored his 12th straight point to open overtime on his way to a playoff record 17 points in the extra period of a Game 4 victory in Portland.
It was the latest star turn in a season-long supernova of a performance from Curry, and it came while coming off the bench after missing 15 days with a right knee sprain. Our own Eric Freeman has all the glowing details of Curry’s historic 40-point, nine-rebound, eight-assist effort, but we’re here to relive it.
It’s frightening to think Curry was merely dusting off the rust on Monday night, but he admitted as much afterwards, and it was evident in the Warriors star’s 6-of-18 shooting effort through three quarters. He air-balled his first three-point attempt of the night, missed his first 10 from distance, and then did this:
Of course, shooting isn’t Curry’s only skill, although he’s awfully good at it. He can also pass the ball:
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But yeah, so back to that shooting thing. There was also this, which came after announcing, “I’m back”:
Blazers owner Paul Allen was left speechless by Curry’s effort, although his ownership is now in question.
And Allen wasn’t the only one. Curry finally found a way to leave Charles Barkley at a loss for words, too:
In the end, it was Curry’s counterpart on Portland who most succinctly summed up the stunning show of skill that somehow overshadowed Damian Lillard’s own 36-point, 10-assist, six-rebound performance.
There was already no doubt who the NBA’s best player was entering Game 4, and now as he embarks on Game 5, we have to wonder whether a healthy Curry makes the NBA champion a foregone conclusion.
And what, exactly, does he have in store for an encore? Steph Curry is back, and the world is watching.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
