Damian Lillard took the NBA world by storm last month after demanding a trade out of the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers star had surprised the NBA community at the start of 2021 as well when he made some pretty loaded claims about Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry. Lillard’s comments triggered waves of media headlines and speculations but prompted no verbal response from Curry. However, two years after that, the Dubs guard recently decided to talk about the comments that induced him to drop a career-high 62 points on the Portland Trail Blazers.
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In January of 2021, the Warriors breezed past Portland in a 137-122 win at home. Curry led the scoring for the Dubs with a staggering 62 points, shooting 18-of-31 from the floor and 8-of-16 from deep. Lillard ended up with 32 points, with a field goal percentage of 41.6 %. However, the groundwork for Curry’s historic showdown was laid a few days before the game when Dame had some things to say about Curry’s shooting abilities.
Stephen Curry addresses how Damian Lillard’s ‘chatter’ led to his iconic 62-point showdown
A few days before the Dubs-Blazers contest, Damian Lillard was asked about Stephen Curry’s game during an interview and how the Dubs star’s three-point shooting had seen a dip recently. Lillard had proceeded to explain how Golden State have a brand new roster and therefore, Curry is finding it difficult to get good looks before shooting the 3-ball.
The seven-time All-Star said in the interview, “Right now with the injuries the Warriors have been dealing with, Steph playing with a younger team right now…it’s different than what it look like for the last four-five years so…You don’t really have that luxury to just take one from that deep just to be taking it.”
The implication of the remarks was that Curry’s shooting prowess was contingent upon the players in his team. In other words, the Dubs guard’s shooting form is suffering due to the lack of veterans in the team. Many thought Lillard was trying to equate his situation in Portland to that of Curry’s in Golden State, supposedly implying that he could perform just as well in a team like the Warriors.
Curry dropped a career-high 62 points against Lillard’s Blazers the very next game to prove a point. The world was still reeling from the ravages of Covid-19. Therefore, Curry had to carry out his carnage in an empty arena, which reverberated with his greatness.
Bringing up the 2021 game and its backdrop, Curry recently said, during a Wired Auto-Complete interview, “62 points in the NBA a couple of years ago. There was a lot of chatter around, you know, post-Championship run, reality of our new team and roster and how it’s being defended and all that.”
“I heard it all and then had the game of my life. Felt like I couldn’t miss,” he added. The four-time NBA Champion finally voiced his thoughts on Lillard’s remarks without explicitly saying his name.
Curry shut down his haters last year once and for all
The Warriors’ exit from the 2019 NBA Finals empty-handed prompted a lot of NBA pundits declaring the end of the Dubs dynasty. Many in the NBA community raised questions about Stephen Curry’s leadership qualities and his ability(or lack thereof) to perform during clutch moments.
Curry shut down all the noise once again after leading his team to the 2022 NBA Championship. The nine-time All-Star also ended all doubts about his clutch performance after becoming the MVP of the 2022 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.
