* Recap: Warriors 110, Pelicans 95

Golden State coach Steve Kerr said afterward that if he’d ever shot as poorly as Steph Curry had been against New Orleans Saturday, he would have stopped after four misses. Of course, Kerr never was the No. 1 option on his team, never mind a two-time NBA MVP generally considered the best shooter in the league.

So even after Curry missed his first eight shots Saturday and didn’t hit his first field goal until the game’s 24th minute, it figured he would keep firing. And he did, shooting his way out of the slump in the Warriors’ home victory, as Mark Medina of the San Jose Mercury News chronicles:

Curry still posted 24 points, even if it required him going only 9-of-25 from the field and 3-of-13 from 3-point range. He partly offset that by going 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, while hearing Warriors fans hear who they think is the NBA’s best player. He also posted 22 of his 27 points in the second half, while finishing with six assists and four rebounds.

“It’s just a stubbornness almost that nothing before the shot I’m about to take matters,” Curry said. “You have to block it out as best as you can and have a sense of that amnesia almost. Rely on the repetitions and the work you put into it.”

Very few have what it takes to end a shooting slump. Very few have what it takes to be willing to work out of it

“It takes a special kind of confidence to do what Steph did tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before reflecting on his own NBA career as a shooting specialist. “I would’ve quit after four shots. That’s not my night. But guys like Steph, he’s a hell of a player. They find a way to turn a bad night into a good night. He stayed with it.”

…

Curry opened the game missing his first eight shots, including five of them from 3-point range. He did all of this despite playing a full 12 minutes to build a rhythm. He did all of this despite hoisting the same kind of shots that normally drop into the basket. And as a result, Curry played a large part in the Warriors’ posting 17 first-quarter points while going 25.9 percent from the field and 9.1 percent from 3-point range.

Curry admitted “it is frustrating in the moment when your shot feels good and it doesn’t go in.” He also blamed his poor shooting start both “trying to do too much” and mistakenly believed he could build off rhythm from Friday’s win over Chicago when he posted 33 points while going 10-of-18 from the field and 4-of-11 from 3-point range. And after a while, “it kind of just throws your rhythm off.”

“Obviously you want to have those shots back,” Curry said. “But you keep looking forward to that next run of minutes you’ll have. Hopefully things start to click.”