The Golden State Warriors sometimes have a tendency to spot the other team a giant lead to start games before clawing their way back.
Take the game against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, for instance, when the Warriors allowed the visiting team to get out to a 40-18 lead in the first quarter.
Still, it somehow wasn’t particularly worrisome for the defensive-minded, high-scoring Warriors. Knowing how they’ve played all season long, you just knew at some point that they would lock down and start playing their brand of basketball to turn the game around.
That’s precisely what ended up happening, as Golden State put the clamps down defensively and held the Mavericks to 72 points for the remainder of the contest after allowing 42 points in the first quarter.
As for their offense, it was mostly all about Stephen Curry, who put on an absolute clinic on his way to a season-high 51 points on 16-of-26 shooting from the field – including 10-of-16 from the arc and nine-of-11 from the stripe – to go with four rebounds and four assists.
The Warriors won the contest 128-114 and did so by outscoring the Mavericks 103-72 in the final three quarters, which is pretty incredible.
Curry has been a front-runner for the MVP award this season, but James Harden has been every bit as good for the honor as well, matching or besting Curry in just about every category with more responsibilities to carry for the Houston Rockets. Curry has been a steady presence for the best team in the league all season long, but an absolute breakout game in terms of scoring the ball wasn’t among the list of things he had in his resume until now (although his previous season-high of 40 points against the Miami Heat back in November wasn’t too shabby either).
At the end of the day, we still have plenty more of the season to go before coming to any kind of conclusion about who deserves the MVP award. On a night when the top candidate dropped 51 points, though, you’r allowed to throw him some praise, and Brandon Jennings was happy to provide it:
Just pass the MVP to Curry!
— BRANDON JENNINGS (@BrandonJennings) February 5, 2015
51pts on National TV ESPN. Was down 24-4 1st Quarter. That’s mvp type stuff #Curry
— BRANDON JENNINGS (@BrandonJennings) February 5, 2015
James Harden is having a MVP year also. After the 51pts Curry is up 1 right now!
— BRANDON JENNINGS (@BrandonJennings) February 5, 2015
Warriors #1 team in the West. (Helps A lot) curry been hooping all year!!!
— BRANDON JENNINGS (@BrandonJennings) February 5, 2015
“@TheRealAJNoel: @BrandonJennings That easy over Harden though?” – 51 national TV game was down 24-4 1st quarter
— BRANDON JENNINGS (@BrandonJennings) February 5, 2015
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Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.