51 points in 37 minutes. 10 of his 16 three-point shots made. Stephen Curry was electric on Feb. 4, 2015 in the Dubs’ 128-114 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
But those numbers don’t even tell the whole story. Yes, they are impressive, but Curry hit a whole other gear that Wednesday night in the third quarter when he posted 26 points in the one frame alone.
Curry played all 12 minutes of the third quarter against the Mavericks. He went a near-perfect 6-of-7 from beyond the arc to go with 4-of-5 from the free throw line. The electric shooting display had Dub Nation on Warriors Ground chanting M-V-P every chance they could get, and the 51-point total would be Curry’s second-highest scoring performance of his career (54 at New York on February 27, 2013) at that point.
Ironically, the Dubs got off to a slow start in the game too. It took over three minutes and five missed shots before an Andrew Bogut putback finally put the team on the board. But the Mavericks would soon rally off 14 straight points and the Warriors faced their largest deficit of the game at 40-18 with 1:23 left in the first quarter.
Although the Warriors were down, they weren’t out. They got back into the game thanks to some quality perimeter marksmanship from Splash Brothers Curry and Klay Thompson, and Leandro Barbosa as well. The trio combined for seven first half 3-pointers to bring Dubs to a 62-58 deficit at the half.
When the Warriors returned from the halftime break, that’s when Curry got hot.
His hot shooting fueled the Warriors outscoring Dallas 110-74 after the 22-point deficit in the first quarter. The victory was the 39th of the season for the Warriors, who had the best record in the NBA at that point and would go on to finish with a league-best 67-15 mark on their way to winning the title that season.