Stephen Curry Responded To The Critics With A Career-High 62 Against The Blazers

The Golden State Warriors have got off to a rough start to the season at 2-3, most notably getting blown out in their first two games of the season on national TV. They were again routed at the hands of the Blazers on Friday after two wins over East bottom feeders in Chicago and Detroit, and the online discourse turned its attention to one Stephen Curry.

There was a lot of talk on social media over the weekend (and really since the first two losses to start the season) about the two-time MVP and calling into question whether he was capable of putting up those tremendous performances we became accustomed to on a bad team where he is the central focus.

The answer from Curry came on Sunday when he erupted for a career-high 62 points in a 137-122 win over Portland in the second game of their mini-series at the Chase Center. Curry was 18-of-31 from the field, 18-of-19 from the free throw line, and 8-of-16 from three-point range on Sunday as the chef made his triumphant return — and made quite a statement — to get Golden State back to 3-3 on the season. Curry got started early, going off for 21 points in the opening quarter as it seemed he had a bit of a fire lit under him.

He didn’t quite keep up that same pace, but still dominated the game, leading the Warriors to a runaway win thanks to some preposterous, vintage Curry shots from way downtown, where it didn’t matter how aggressive the closeouts were, the ball was going up and it was going in.

His last three was the best example of that, as he hoisted from almost out of bounds on the left wing over a hard contest, finding nothing but net and launching him into an airplane celebration to the delight of his teammates.

Steph’s splash brother Klay Thompson enjoyed the performance and welcomed him to the 60-point club on Twitter, while actual brother Seth likewise enjoyed the show in Philly.

It was a sensational performance, one that should quiet some of the chatter around him. He came into the night averaging 26.4 points on some rough efficiency (42 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from three) but put all that behind him for a scoring performance for the ages on Sunday. He’ll surely mention that the win was the most important thing on the night, but you know he had at least heard some of what folks were saying and whether he’ll admit it or not, it had to have felt really good to quiet all of that in this way against a good team like Portland.