The news that Stephen Curry would play in last night’s Game 4 between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Golden State Warriors seemed a significant but not earth-shaking development, and when I checked the first-half score and saw the Blazers up by ten, I figured the game was over and that Curry would need at least until the next one to shake off the rust. Needless to say, I got a bit of a surprise the next morning. I hope that when the Blazers and their fans in the Moda Center get past the initial trauma of their 132-125 OT loss, they find a way to appreciate the performance they witnessed. Curry’s 40 points, including 17 in OT, may not be quite as miraculous as Michael Jordan’s 37 points in Game 5 of the 1997 Finals, when he could barely stand after a night of severe gastroenteritis, but it’s pretty close. It is all the more incredible when you consider that Curry’s 16 for 32 shooting came after missing his first nine shots, which means that once he found his stroke he shot 70% for the rest of the game.
Anything is possible in today’s NBA, so I won’t go so far as to count out the Blazers, whose locker room was a morgue afterwards, but Curry’s return may have just given them and the other teams still in the playoffs the same message that Larry Bird once delivered before an All-Star Game 3-point contest: they’re all just competing for second place.
– Chuck Strom
