The Warriors lost 136-131 to the Blazers last night in a wild shootout of a game. Both teams let it rip from beyond the arc, and combined, they sunk an absurd 44 3-pointers. Steph Curry led all scorers with 48 points, 36 of which came from deep, but it wasn’t enough to keep Golden State from dropping below .500 on the season.
Advertisement
This was the second time in three days that Steph went off in a losing effort, continuing a disturbing trend that began nearly a month ago when he dropped 34 points on the Magic and 38 on the Blazers in back-to-back games and yet the Dubs couldn’t find a way to get … well, a dub.
Steph has been the silver lining to a team that is now a disappointing 13-14, and he made some history with last night’s outburst.
Steph passes Michael Jordan for the most 40-plus point performances by a player age 30 or older pic.twitter.com/ZtY2TeJhyS
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 15, 2025
Any time you pass Michael Jordan on some kind of NBA all-time list, it’s quite a feat, and the fact that Steph still obviously has so much left in the tank makes this stat even more impressive. What’s more, according to StatMuse he now has eight 45-point games since turning 35. LeBron James has six, MJ had three, and nobody else in NBA history has more than two. That’s ridiculous.
To put that into further context, Jordan played two seasons after turning 35, when he unretired and came back to play for the Wizards. LeBron is about to turn 41, so he’s had almost six years to post those six games. Steph doesn’t turn 38 until March, so he’s done all this in about two-and-a-half seasons.
Steph was asked after the game about his accomplishment, and always a team-first guy, he said, “Cool recognition and longevity. Obviously, I’d like to celebrate it with a win, but any time you’re doing anything with certain names in this league, historically, that definitely means something.”
The Warriors got hot after adding Jimmy Butler at last season’s trade deadline, but they were undone in the playoffs by a slew of injuries, including to Butler and Steph. The hope was that this year they’d be healthy and pick up where they left off, but after a hot start they’ve really fallen off, slipping down the Western Conference standings to their current eighth-place spot.
As one of the older teams in the league, the Warriors don’t have the athletes or explosiveness to keep up with some of the more dynamic teams out there, and it’s worrisome that Steph is doing so much and it still isn’t translating into a lot of wins. Will he be able to sustain this pace all season and into the playoffs? Or will the front office be able to get him some help so that he doesn’t need to put on a cape every night?
Steph is proving on a nightly basis that he’s still one of the best to ever do it, and fans need to appreciate it while they can. Hopefully for all our sakes he’ll still be doing it for a long time to come.
