Golden State’s Stephen Curry is on the cusp of his second scoring championship.
If Bradley Beal — who has missed Washington’s last three games with a hamstring injury, but is listed as questionable for Sunday — does not play, then Curry needs to score at least 10 points against Memphis to clinch the scoring title, assuming he plays in the game that will decide the No. 8 seed for the Western Conference State Farm NBA Play-In Tournament.
Curry is averaging 31.8 points per game; Beal 31.4.
If Beal plays Sunday and Curry doesn’t, a very unlikely scenario, Beal needs 53 points for the scoring crown. If both play and Curry was to score only 20 points, Beal would still need 42 to overtake him.
Curry won the scoring title in 2015-16. If he wins this year, he would become the second player to capture a scoring crown after turning 33 — the other player on that list being Michael Jordan.
A Curry win would also mark the eighth consecutive season that a Western Conference player takes the scoring title. James Harden — then of Houston — won it in each of the last three seasons, preceded by Russell Westbrook (then of Oklahoma City), Curry, Westbrook, and Kevin Durant (also then of Oklahoma City). The last East scoring champion was Carmelo Anthony for New York in 2012-13.