OAKLAND – The Steph Curry revolution reached another level Wednesday night, as the reigning MVP became the first player to make 400 3-pointers in a season.
The 400th splashed down with 11:17 remaining in the third quarter, giving the Warriors a 73-53 lead over the Memphis Grizzlies at Oracle Arena.
“It was just good to see it go in,” Curry said.
No. 401 came a short time later, with 9:34 left in the quarter, giving the Warriors a 78-55 lead. His final trey of the night, No. 402, put the Warriors up 102-81 with 5.1 seconds left in the third quarter.
After scoring 46 points in 29 minutes, over three quarters, Curry walked off to watch the fourth quarter from a comfortable seat on the bench.
The ease with which Curry scored his 400th contrasted starkly with his work three seasons ago, when he broke the record for the first time. The team was on the road, there were nerves and he concedes to forcing the issue.
Curry let it come to him this time and, boy, did it come. He made 10 shots from deep.
“I just tried to have the approach tonight coming in, obviously I want to win the game and keep the flow of our offense and not break that just to launch threes,” he said. “But I saw a point about 8 minutes into the first quarter (when) I was able to kind of toe the line a couple times, knock it down, and things started to flow.”
Curry was 10-of-19 from beyond the arc and 5-of-5 inside the arc. He made it look easy, no matter the distance.
“He actually did a really good job early on of not forcing the 3,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He didn't take one for the first three or four minutes, and he could have, could have jacked a couple of them. But he really kind of settled into the game. As soon as he got one up and hit it, then it was like the floodgates opened up.”
“But he just had one of the most amazing seasons that anybody has ever had in the history of the league.”
How remarkable is Curry could get to 400? He is barely five weeks removed from becoming the first player to make 300 treys in a season. He was coming off a record number, 286, established last season.
Curry owns three of the top four marks for 3-pointers in a season, with teammate Klay Thompson owning the other.
“I'm amazed by Steph, especially as a shooter, to get 400 threes in a season, that's hard to put into words,” said Thompson, who ended the season with 276 treys – more than anybody not named Curry. “Man, that's so hard to do. People don't realize it. He makes it look so easy.
Curry entered this season with 1,191 3-pointers to rank 51st on the all-time list. He will end the season with 1,593 treys, in 19th place.
