Superhuman Stephen Curry returns and the Warriors’ dominance returns with him
OAKLAND, Calif. — The play that officially marked the return of Superhuman Stephen Curry began in a most mundane way: grabbing a defensive rebound.
Somehow, after Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford tossed up a contested jumper that clanged off the rim in the dying seconds of the first half of Saturday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, not only did Curry grab the rebound, but he did so over DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers’ 7-foot tall All-Star center.
Then, after slipping past Crawford with a nifty behind-the-back move, Curry dribbled once, gathered the ball, took two steps and, just as he was arriving at half court, let fly with a shot that looked like it was going in from the moment it left his hands.
And it did, slicing perfectly through the net as the buzzer sounded, launching Curry, his teammates and the partisan fans here inside Oracle Arena into the kind of unbridled celebrations that this team was doing on a regular basis a year ago as it steamrolled through the NBA to a record 73 regular season wins and to within one win of a second straight championship.
Stephen Curry ends the half with a bang!