Stephen Curry is soaring into the stratosphere again, and he's helping the Golden State Warriors figure out just how high they can fly.
Both developments are bad news for the rest of the NBA.
The reigning MVP scored 39 points in 30 minutes Wednesday, engineering a 126-111 win over the Charlotte Hornets that was actually over in the first quarter, after which the Dubs led 41-21 behind six made treys from Curry.
Playing with a special flair he seems to reserve for his hometown Hornets, Curry dropped Marvin Williams with a wicked dribble move before one triple:
It may have been the first crossover to floor two people:
As Curry drilled his eighth triple of the first half, it was almost as if mercy was in order:
He let up, hitting just three more treys in the third quarter to finish with 11 makes on 15 attempts from deep. The total would have been higher, and Curry's NBA record of 13 made three-pointers almost certainly would have fallen, if Golden State hadn't so thoroughly crushed its opponent by then.
He sat out the entire fourth quarter for the second game in a row, but to be fair, he was responsible for the giant advantage that put him there in both cases:
If only head coach Steve Kerr would focus on records...
This is all an extension of Curry's finding himself in January, when he ditched the passive, "help Kevin Durant fit in" routine and got back to what made him so unstoppable a year ago.
Golden State ran more pick-and-rolls, put the ball in Curry's hands more often, and the results were undeniable. The Warriors were one overtime loss and one Dion Waiters game-winner away from an undefeated January.
The need to empower a two-time MVP, to turn him loose, is an odd thing—probably an issue you'd only encounter in a unique situation like this, in which another MVP arrives and the incumbent is uncommonly deferential.
With Curry's increased selfishness (in the nicest possible way), the Warriors are extending their league lead in net rating and pushing toward the highest average margin of victory in history. If the season ended today, they'd have it.
That's not to say the Dubs are without their issues. JaVale McGee made an impact as the starter on Wednesday, but he only got the chance because Zaza Pachulia was out with a strained rotator cuff. Depth up front matters for this team, if only because it shields Durant and Draymond Green from too many minutes against bigger foes until they're necessary in the playoffs.
And as these massive blowouts mount, complacency and turnover woes could resurface.
But as so many other contenders wrestle with legitimate issues—Cleveland and Boston can't defend, Toronto's offense is slipping, San Antonio dropped two games with Kawhi Leonard last week—the Warriors are finding new summits.
That they're scaling those heights because Curry is his old self underscores something we never should have forgotten: He's the best player in the league. The single entity capable of elevating a team from very good to historically great all by himself.
The paradigm-inverting, game-plan shredding force that shot holes through the league last season is back.
And his team is better than ever.
Everybody Likes a Clean Slate
When the Minnesota Timberwolves took a 10-2 lead on the Cleveland Cavaliers behind Karl-Anthony Towns' first-quarter roasting of Tristan Thompson, it seemed like hopes of a fresh start in February were misplaced.
The Cavs went 7-8 in January, LeBron James' first losing month since 2006, and all of the same issues that led to that poor mark appeared in the early going against Minnesota.
Towns smoked Thompson in transition, beat him to spots for deep post position and broke loose in the pick-and-roll. Nobody on the Cavs could find a clean look, and Kyrie Irving picked up a technical that short-circuited a Cleveland breakaway.
It was discouraging...and then the Cavs sorted themselves out.
The ball moved, threes fell and Irving became a facilitator:
He finished with a career-high 14 assists, a total no James teammate has ever touched, per ESPN:
How's that for a playmaker?
The defensive issues that derailed the Cavaliers in January were still present in spurts against Minnesota. The Wolves had a 60-point first half in Cleveland's 125-97 win, and Towns got whatever he wanted (26 points on 11-of-19 shooting) for the most part.
The stretch from April to June is all that matters for the Cavs, so we shouldn't have panicked last month, and we shouldn't overreact to an improved effort at the start of this one. But Cleveland looked better, and James only had to play 34 minutes to get his 27 points—two good signs for a team that could use a few.
For One Night, the Numbers Don't Matter
Kyle Lowry put up 32 points and five assists in the Toronto Raptors' 109-104 loss to the Boston Celtics, running the show on both ends without DeMar DeRozan (on the second night of a back-to-back, no less) and leaving evaluators impressed:
Those posted within a minute of one another, by the way. That's how unifying Lowry's excellence is: He fosters basic, factual groupthink.
But Isaiah Thomas electrified an entire building:
He put up 44 in the game and 19 in the fourth on Wednesday.
But statistical deep dives like the one from Matt Moore of CBS Sports, who highlighted Thomas' net negative impact—even in those point-bloated fourth quarters—have shifted the burden of proof to those backing IT: "In fact, the Celtics have a negative net rating with Isaiah Thomas on the floor in the fourth quarter. That means that, per possession, they are actually outscored by their opponent."
On the year, Boston's net rating in the fourth quarter with Thomas on the court is minus-0.4. With him on the bench: plus-20.5.
Games like Wednesday's make those figures hard to fathom, as Thomas entered in the fourth with the Celtics down 87-79 and erased the deficit by himself.
On-off stats can be noisy, and they sure don't appreciate some of the nuances in Thomas' game. But in light of those numbers, the presumption must be that Thomas' contributions are a little less meaningful than they seem.
The numbers are much less fun than seeing Thomas take over a game and add to his incredible season, but that's why we have them: To coldly tell us all the fun we're having isn't as great as we think it is.
If you're looking for upshots in all this, maybe we ought to consider the Raptors a bigger threat to regain the No. 2 seed in the East—despite the loss. But where's the fun in that?
Anybody Want to Get Optimistic About the Knicks?
You'd be forgiven for glossing over a 95-90 win over the Brooklyn Nets, particularly one marred by sequences like this:
Yuck.
But at the end of all that rec-league nonsense, Kristaps Porzingis hit a critical game-clinching shot and engineered a fourth-quarter comeback as Carmelo Anthony watched from the pine. KP's 19 points and 12 rebounds were necessary to overcome Anthony's 6-of-22 effort from the floor, and Willy Hernangomez looked awfully comfortable up front alongside Porzingis, scoring 16 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
Whether Anthony eventually gets traded or not, Porzingis and Hernangomez profile as an intriguing combo—one that will hopefully take on a central role soon.
The Madness Feeds on Itself
The Miami Heat (20-30) will never lose again and are locks to finish the season with a record of 52-30. There are no two ways about it.
Dion Waiters' 20 points helped extend the Heat's incomprehensible winning streak to nine, and his transformation from ball-hogging, low-efficiency chucker to genuine all-around weapon may have become total on this specific play:
That's Dion Waiters. Dion. Waiters.
And don't worry, the irrational confidence is still there, as B/R's Zach Buckley noted:
It's just that now it's way more rational.
Waiters is averaging 21.6 points, 4.7 assists and 4.6 rebounds on 49 percent shooting during Miami's streak.
This is murder for the Heat's tank job, but maybe the experience of a playoff series will do more for the young roster's development than another high lottery pick. Because, yeah, we can talk about the Heat and the postseason now; they're three games out of the eighth spot.
The Bucks Aren't Paying Attention
The Milwaukee Bucks lost their fourth straight game, a 104-88 laugher to the Utah Jazz, and saw their defense take yet another hit as it slides down into the bottom 10 of the league. It was clear from an early juncture that there wasn't hope for a different outcome.
Milwaukee trailed by 18 at halftime, the fourth straight time it had fallen behind by double digits at the break. Worse still, they got burned by a play every team in the league should, by now, know is coming.
Yep: Joe Ingles hit Gordon Hayward for another backdoor lob:
This happens all the time. There are endless clips of this specific action out there. They're widely available. And yet, the Bucks fell for it.
How?!
OK, fine, Dan Clayton of Salt City Hoops has a pretty good explanation:
But that even-handed treatment really gets in the way of my contention that a lack of preparation and urgency don't bode well for a possible Bucks turnaround. So I'm sticking with the idea that Milwaukee's gaffe here is inexcusable.
As further evidence: The Bucks surrendered 20 corner three-point attempts to a Jazz team that had only taken 6.6 per game before Wednesday. Milwaukee, as you'd expect, surrendered a league-worst average of 9.4 coming in.
After a terrific start, Milwaukee's slide is starting to feel irreversible.
The Chicago Bulls Are Cool with Chaos
An Oklahoma City Thunder team that couldn't score and couldn't get a stop sure helped, but the way the Chicago Bulls seized and held a hefty lead with a dominant third quarter showed they could pull together and excel amid uncertainty.
With Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade sniping at the team's youth and Rajon Rondo firing back—not to mention rumors of a longstanding rift between Butler and the front office—the Bulls haven't been the most functional outfit of late.
But they smoked the Thunder anyhow, 128-100, as Butler put in 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The performance helped quiet the unrest...and the crowd in OKC:
Despite the drama, the Bulls remain comfortably ensconced in the East's No. 7 spot.
It Runs in the Family
Or, rather, it shoots in the family.
Dell Curry's still got it, which shouldn't be surprising for a guy who ranks 45th all-time with 1,245 made triples. Steph, for what it's worth, moved past Rashard Lewis into 12th place.
Monday's Final Scores
Cleveland Cavaliers 125, Minnesota Timberwolves 97
Indiana Pacers 98, Orlando Magic 88
Detroit Pistons 118, New Orleans Pelicans 98
New York Knicks 95, Brooklyn Nets 90
Miami Heat 116, Atlanta Hawks 93
Boston Celtics 109, Toronto Raptors 104
Dallas Mavericks 113, Philadelphia 76ers 95
Utah Jazz 104, Milwaukee Bucks 88
Chicago Bulls 128, Oklahoma City Thunder 100
Los Angeles Clippers 124, Phoenix Suns 114
Memphis Grizzlies 119, Denver Nuggets 99
Golden State Warriors 126, Charlotte Hornets 111
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Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated. Accurate through games played Wednesday, Feb. 1.