While Steph Curry had shown plenty of promise during the early seasons of his NBA career, he truly didn't emerged as a superstar until a 54-point performance against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 27, 2013.
Speaking on his new podcast "Heat Check with Stephen and Dell Curry", the Warriors star described his monumental game at the mecca of basketball.
“You never know when it’s going to click,” Steph explained. “You never know when you’re going to have a breakthrough like that. And I guess that night was definitely a defining moment in raising the ceiling of my game, just the confidence that went behind it. It was more about proving to myself that I was the type of player that I thought I was, that I was working to be, that I knew I could be.
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“If I had that night in Dallas or Milwaukee or somewhere like that it still would feel the same but the fact that it was in the Garden was [special].”
Curry scorched the Knicks with 54 points on 18-of-28 shooting from the field, including 11-of-13 from 3-point range and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. Still, Curry expressed his frustration that Golden State lost that game against the New York.
“The only problem was Carmelo [Anthony] and JR [Smith] just made a couple more shots down the stretch and they spoiled the 54,” Steph said to Dell. I think one of them made a big shot down the stretch in the fourth quarter with about a minute left and they ended up winning the game.
“That was kind of the coming-out party for me. You can score 54 in a lot of different places and people will talk about it but when you do it in the Garden, you do it that loud, it just hits a little different.
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“I was so pissed off that we lost, when I got back to the hotel my TV was on ESPN, and for whatever reason they were just rolling the highlights of me scoring 54 and all the shots so it was a wild experience and a wild night.”
While the Knicks ultimately won, that year was a breakthrough season for Curry and the Warriors, rolling to the Western Conference's No. 6 seed. Curry and Golden State’s breakout campaign set the franchise up for its dominant five-year NBA Finals run from 2014 to 2019. In the process, Curry became one of the greatest shooters in league history, winning two MVP awards during that span, cementing his legacy.
And it all started with that magical evening at Madison Square Garden, where Curry’s shots kept falling in and his legend truly began.