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Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said there has never been any basketball player like Stephen Curry after his stellar performance in the rout of the Brooklyn Nets.
Curry reached 2,900 career three-pointers after making nine shots from beyond the arc in a 37-point display in Tuesday’s 117-99 demolition of the championship-chasing Nets.
The haul marked Curry’s 37th career game with nine three-pointers or more, but also helped the NBA-leading Warriors improve to 12-2 against the star-studded Nets, considered among the title favourites.
Two-time MVP Curry, who also had seven rebounds and five assists, tallied his fifth career game with 35-plus points in less than 30 minutes – the most by any player since the three-point era (1980).
When asked what makes Golden State’s offence so great, Kerr responded: “Steph Curry… I’m not kidding. There’s never been anyone like him. He’s an offense by himself.
“He’s going to pull defenders with him 35 feet from the hoop and it’s a matter of putting smart people around him, like Draymond [Green] and Andre [Iguodala].
“The fact that Steph can be dominant on and off the ball is what makes him unique. There’s nobody in the league now or, as far as I’m concerned, ever who had that combination of on-ball skill and pick-and-roll dominance, with the off-ball game of Reggie Miller or Rip Hamilton. That combination has never been seen.”
The Warriors’ exceptional start to the new season has fuelled hype about their own championship credentials, having won NBA titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018 before missing the playoffs in the past two campaigns.
Curry played down their title hopes but said Golden Stave have “championship DNA” and revealed he is motivated by their past two seasons of disappointment.
“It’s always motivation coming off the last two years that we’ve had,” Curry told ESPN after the game. “My injury two years ago, Klay [Thompson] being out for two years, us scrapping and clawing trying to get a playoffs spot last year.
“Coming in healthy this year, we wanted to set our own narrative and our own agenda. That’s just playing Warrior basketball. We have so many talented guys, we can go through 11-12 with Klay and Wise [James Wiseman] who haven’t even been available yet.
“It’s going to be a great year for us to keep building, have that chip on our shoulder. We have championship DNA but it’s been two years since we’ve been able to prove it. We’ve got to take every opportunity to get there.”
Thompson has resumed five-on-five practice in further good news for the Warriors, as he seeks to return after Achilles and ACL injuries, which meant he has not played in the NBA since June 2019.
