Warriors guard Stephen Curry endured a nasty shooting slump to start the new year, but just before the calendar hit February, Curry’s shot returned in spectacular fashion during a scintillating performance against the Rockets on Monday.
And it had a lot to do with some good ole’ NBA trash talk.
With the game close in the second half, Rockets G Kevin Porter Jr. decided to direct some verbal arrows at Curry, who said after the game that Porter’s talk “lit the fire” for his vintage 21-point fourth quarter. Curry’s show led to a 122-108 win for Golden State.
Coach Steve Kerr, for his part, said he didn’t notice the junk talk. But he encouraged future opponents to try and rattle Curry — the Baby Faced Assassin — with head games.
And it’s no wonder. Curry broke out of his slump with the highest-scoring fourth quarter in his career and 40 points overall. He also had nine assists and five rebounds and shot 13-for-23 from the field, including 7-for-14 from distance.
Before we get to the highlights, here’s a glimpse at Porter’s attempt at intimidating The Golden Child. Also, peep the postgame comment from Curry, which I heard live on TV and can confirm.
So while Curry approved of Porter’s tactics after the game, he clearly was okay during the game, too. Here are his fourth-quarter highlights, which helped put January in the rearview mirror.
But as Curry already intimated, it was all good after the game between him and Porter. They dapped postgame and also talked about their profession near the end of the contest.
Curry was truly incredible during the Porter trash talk and his fourth-quarter outburst. Curry, ever the Baby Faced Assasin, didn’t say a word in reply as far as I could tell. He just let his game do the talking.
And it’s a good thing it spoke clearly. His game had been speaking a bit of gibberish lately, if you will. So it’s no wonder Kerr encourages opponents to trash talk the former MVP. It helped break Curry out of his slump.
Still, Kerr shouldn’t get his hopes up. There is a reason it’s very rare to see an NBA player go at Curry the way that Porter did. Most players have learned better by now — you simply can’t throw trash the Golden Child’s way and expect to get away with it.
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