IN the lead up to the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers meeting in the NBA Finals for the third straight season I’ve decided to do 6 daily feature articles leading up to the hyped up seven game series. Legacies will be defined, reputations are on the line and the winner will claim bragging rights as the better team in this bitter, historic rivalry.

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Make sure you watch the last trey on this vid. My god…..

YOU’VE got to have some serious balls to pull up from 35 feet with three seconds left of a tied game against a KD/Westbrook team on the road. Let’s be honest though 2015-16 Steph Curry was a beast the likes of which we have never seen. He obliterated the record for most three’s in a season by over 100, previously held by…yep, Steph Curry from the year before. Along with smashing that record Curry became the first unanimous MVP, winning back-to-back honours and led the league in both scoring and steals. His team broke the record for single season wins cracking a 73-9 win-loss ledger during a memorable year.

Image from si.com

SO it was CLEARLY obvious that next year, with the team adding former MVP Kevin Durant that Curry’s output was going to drop as they also put more emphasis on being rested/healthy for the playoffs rather than chasing regular season W’s. But people saying he had an ‘off-year’ or he has taken a step back is just stupid. Curry’s 324 threes made this season marked only the second time more than 300 had been made over an 82 game regular season beating out the next player not named Steph Curry by over 50 made treys. The 2016-17 regular season stats from Curry are as follows. 25.3 PPG, 6.6 APG, 1.8 SPG, 46.8 FG%, 41.1 3P%, 89.8 FT%. The list of players that have had such seasons since the year 2000?

Steph Curry in 2014-15 &  in 2015-16.

That’s it.

Taking shooting stats out of it, only Allen Iverson (5 times), Dwyane Wade (3), LeBron James (1), James Harden (1) and Russell Westbrook (1) have averaged the same points, assists and steals over a single year. Even Michael Jordan only accomplished such a feat once in his career.

Image from youtube.com

IT was always going to be ridiculous to expect Curry to reproduce such illustrious stats, but his efficiency and playmaking was still on full display last season. This postseason Steph has upped all of his shooting numbers and his scoring output, while playing almost exactly the same number of minutes. Somewhat surprisingly he is leading the team in scoring over their 12 playoff games and dropped over 31 a game against the Spurs, proving that he is in a much better place than this time last year. The Warriors +16.3 point differential is the largest such difference in NBA postseason history and it seems like only now are they hitting their straps as a team. Fuck.

As a Cavs fan it’s tough for me to love Chef Curry, considering the rivalry that his Warriors have established with LeBron & Co. That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate his historic stat line and his overall greatness. I’m petrified at the thought of a Steph Curry performing at the peak of his powers and considering he has had an ‘off year’ so far, imagine what he can do in the Finals if he is zeroed in.

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