Last night, the Golden State Warriors pulled off a nice comeback victory at home against the New Orleans Pelicans, 147-140 while about 1,900 miles away in Houston, the Rockets were suffering a close, overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets, 145-142. Besides both being crazy, high-scoring games, each one saw a player have a historic night with James Harden scoring 58 points in for Houston and Steph Curry draining nine three-pointers for the Warriors.
With his nine three-pointers, Curry became the first player in NBA history to make eight or more three-point shots in three consecutive games. While for over in Warriors land Curry took a little while to get going last night, but in the third quarter, he scored 23 points and hit seven three-pointers in a row at one point.
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Curry, who recently moved into third place on the all-time three-point list, no longer surprises anyone with his ability to shoot a basketball. Especially not his coach, Steve Kerr, who ESPN quotes as saying:
"I can't say that nothing he does surprises me anymore, because tonight, that might have been the most unbelievable stretch. In terms of the difficulty of the shots. I've seen him get hot obviously a million times. I'm looking forward to watching the tape, because it seemed like ... it looked to me like they were all about six, eight feet beyond the 3-point line with a guy [who had] a hand in his face. It's insane what he does."
While Curry was making history, James Harden was scoring a season-high 58 points, doing all he could to try and drag his Rockets (who are resembling a MASH unit these days, with all their injuries) to a victory. Though, his 58 points weren't enough to get the win it was the second consecutive game in which he had scored 55 points or more (he dropped 57on Memphis on Monday night).
Two consecutive games of 55+ points is a feat that hasn't been seen in the NBA since Wilt Chamberlain did it back in 1962!
The game also added to his record streak of 30+ point games - which now stands at 18!
What This Means
Curry and Harden are both superstars but at this point, but Harden has a much lesser team around him. Yet, while he can continue to play out of his mind and carry the Rockets into the playoffs (and possibly get himself a second-consecutive MVP), the question is what effect will all this have on him in the postseason.
Making the playoffs isn't the end goal for this Rockets team. For these Rockets, as it has been for the last couple years, it is all about beating the Warriors and the NBA finals. and two years ago Harden disappeared at the end of their playoff run, then last year the entire team missed 27 straight 3-pointers in game 7 versus the Warriors. So, while Harden can keep this up for now, will there be consequences?