Add it to the list.
This one looked different. Stephen Curry didn’t erupt for 54 points at the Garden like he did in 2013. He didn’t pour in 31, either, like he did last year.
But after Mikal Bridges’ suffocating defense limited him to just eight points in the first half, Curry erupted for 14 in the third quarter and a dagger of a 3-pointer in the fourth — and the result ended up being the same.
Behind Curry’s 28 points and the Knicks offense going ice cold in crunch time, the Warriors pulled away for a 114-102 victory on Tuesday to snap the Knicks’ three-game winning streak.
OG Anunoby poured in 29 points for one of his better offensive games of the season and Jalen Brunson added 25, but without Karl-Anthony Towns (personal reasons), the Knicks faltered with only three players reaching double-digits and left for a five-game West Coast trip on a sour note.
For at least the opening 24 minutes, though, it appeared as if all the Knicks needed was Bridges on their roster to stop Curry, because with their offseason acquisition — the one who required four first-round picks and has been criticized recently during his seesawing season — swarming Curry, the Golden State superstar managed just eight points on 3-for-10 shooting. Bridges made Curry work to create space, and that forced the Warriors to search for secondary scoring options.
Curry almost didn’t play against the Knicks either, with a sore left ankle from their game Monday in Charlotte causing him to pop up as questionable on the injury report — and forcing his status to remain unclear until after warmups.
But as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr hinted at during his pregame press conference, this game on this stage happens once a year. It’s Curry. It’s the Garden. It’s the heartbreak of basketball with one of the stars of the sport. There was no way he’d miss it.
And at the start of the third quarter, he started to show why. He hit two free throws and made two consecutive baskets to give the Warriors an early jolt.
Later in the frame, after trailing the play, Curry waited behind the arc on the right wing — wide open, and without any help defense — and sank a 3-pointer, and then he put Golden State up seven with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth with another one.
Still, the Knicks had a chance. Anunoby helped them keep pace as a makeshift offense adjusted without Towns. But the Knicks came up with plenty of empty possessions in the fourth and committed miscues at the worst time.
After the Knicks turned the ball over following a Warriors missed possession, Curry waited in front of the Golden State bench. He was wide open again. And as the ball tracked toward the net, the Garden crowd — with plenty of Curry jerseys dotting the seats — waited in anticipation as it fell through the net and he turned around.
In a career filled with the milestones and the accolades and the signature shots that strung together — year after year after year — to make Curry a future Hall of Famer, he has composed his share of moments at the Garden. This one was just his latest.
