SAN FRANCISCO – Scoreless nights from 3-point land are few and far between for Stephen Curry.
It’s happened only 36 times in 959 NBA regular-season and playoff games, including Monday. But history shows that Curry typically rebounds from an off perimeter shooting night with ease. Over the course of his career, he’s shooting 49% on 3-pointers (99 of 202) in a game and averaging 20.9 points after not making a triple in the previous contest.
That’s why the Warriors feel they have no reason to worry about Curry bouncing back in a potential championship-clinching Game 6 Thursday night when Golden State looks to once again stun the Celtics on their home court and silence the hostile Boston crowd.
If anything, they see Curry’s 0-for-9 shooting from 3-point range in Game 5 as a motivation.
“He’s going to be livid going into Game 6,” Draymond Green said after the Warriors’ 104-94 win. “And that’s exactly what we need.”
Curry has already turned in a legendary performance under the Celtics 17 championship banners on the parquet court of TD Garden this series. In Game 4, Curry poured in 43 points and made seven 3s while grabbing 10 rebounds in what was an impressive two-way showcase by the frontrunner for this year’s Finals MVP.
But Curry wasn’t able to stir up the same magic back home at Chase Center Monday night. That, and the Celtics suffocating defense wouldn’t allow it, throwing double and triple teams at the Warriors superstar.
The gravitational pull of Curry opened the floor for others such as Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson to take advantage of as they helped carry the Warriors to a victory to take a 3-2 series lead.
Curry finished the night with 16 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals. He wasn’t the only player who struggled from deep. The Warriors converted on just nine of their 40 attempts from 3-point range, and leading scorer Wiggins missed all six of his attempts.
Monday night marked the end of two of Curry’s NBA-record steaks. He’s the only player to make at least one 3-pointer in 132 career playoff games and 233 overall consecutive games.
“Steph was probably due for a game like this. He’s been shooting the ball so well that, at some point, he was going to have a tough night,” said coach Steve Kerr, who tipped his cap to Boston’s defense. “But even for the best shooter in the world, games like this happen. And fortunately they don’t happen too often.
“I like Steph coming off of a game like this, too. I like his ability to bounce back.”
Fans and Warriors players alike haven’t needed to see Curry to rebound from a poor perimeter shooting night in quite some time like Game 5 — Curry’s worst 3-point shooting performance in 3 1/2 years — but the Warriors superstar’s track record should serve as a warning for the Celtics, who are on the brink of elimination.
In fact, one of Curry’s best shooting nights from beyond the 3-point line came after he went 0 for 10 from downtown in the game before. Curry went berserk Nov. 7, 2016, making then an NBA record 13 triples for 46 points in a win over the Pelicans.
“There’s a fire burning and I want to make shots,” Curry said. “But the rest of it is about how we win the game, and we did that … looking forward to that bounce back.”
