An ankle-breaker and a loss weren’t enough. Stephen Curry had to diss Luka Doncic too. The season-opener loss and early trash talk were avenged when the Golden State Warriors faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Cup’s first group stage matchup. Fitting for Halloween night, Curry ensured he’d be Luka Doncic’s worst nightmare.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The Warriors superstar produced one of the standout highlights of the young season, capping off an extraordinary 112-95 win over the Lakers by humbling the Lakers centerpiece.
Midway through the third quarter, when the Lakers were up 69-60, Curry hunted a one-on-one switch against Doncic. He pulled an elite crossover dribble that had Doncic touching earth. While Luka tumbled to the floor, Curry drilled a step-back three-pointer directly over him.
To add insult to ankle-breaker, Curry immediately ran back on defense while putting both hands on his head like he was shocked at what he did.
Right after his 31-point outing, the guys on NBA on Prime made Curry watch and react to a replay of that exact moment. Steph admitted he was caught off guard by how devastating the move looked in real time.
“I was just trying to get a little bit of space. I didn’t expect it to get that nasty, but it was one of those [where] you gotta kind of keep your composure,” Curry said. “And I remember James Harden had to do like the shimmy to get himself going back in the day.”
And he added this little gem: “I don’t know, I haven’t been that open in a long time.” Understandable why the Prime studio was in splits.
When asked if holding his head that way was meant to taunt Doncic too, the 2x MVP explained that his animated reactions are more spontaneous than intentional.
“I just love this game,” Curry explained. “All my mannerisms are just all over the place because I’m just having fun. Those moments, especially at this stage of your career, you’re just appreciative of the ability to keep playing at this level. And I want that joy to continue until I’m done.”
In his postgame press conference, Curry also addressed the emotional edge on the court following the season-opener’s tense run-in between Doncic and Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg.
“That’s part of it, for sure. Have your brother’s back,” Curry told reporters. “But it’s also, and even his role in the game, we gotta win the game, and what that means is keep making Luka’s life as hard as possible. You know he’s the leading scorer in the league right now, the way he started that first quarter was ridiculous, and it was going to require everybody to be a little more physical, a little more connected and kinda withstand some of his flurries that he had. Of course there’s backing Yaxel up, and that’s a collective energy we need to win this game.”
His comments seem to be a direct callback to Lakers’ recent media day when Doncic was asked which player makes life difficult for him.
“Probably say Steph [Curry],” Doncic said then. “He just runs around, and then you can’t give him no space.” And he prophesied tonight’s crossover.
The beef between Doncic and Lendeborg, compounded with the rookie declaring he “lost all respect” for the Slovenian star, carried forward tonight. Doncic was rained on with boos by the Bay Area crowd, and he even engaged the spectators in trash talk.
Lendeborg and Doncic were again chirping at each other during some 1-on-1 segments. The 24-year-old though, was left disappointed after his 6-point game. Not dwelling on it too much, he ranked Curry’s ankle-breaker on Doncic tonight as his second all-time favorite.
Curry followed Wednesday’s 44-point masterclass against Minnesota with tonight’s 31 points, shooting 11-of-23 from the field and 8-of-14 from three-point range. While adding four rebounds and six assists to his stat line, he orchestrated an electric comeback at Chase Center.
As Curry mentioned, Doncic had a 21-point first quarter to push the Lakers to a lead early. They were leading by as much as 25 points in the second period when the Warriors executed a stunning rally within the very same quarter. The Dubs outscored LA 38-15 to tie the game at 53 heading into halftime.
According to league play-by-play data, the Warriors’ final 17-point margin of victory established a new record for the largest win by a team trailing by 25 or more points in the play-by-play era. It also marked the first time in the shot clock era that a team trailing by at least 23 points after the opening quarter managed to tie or lead by the half.
Beyond the game’s dramatic outcome, Curry reached another major milestone in basketball history. Scoring his 26,669th point in the fourth quarter, Curry officially passed Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins (26,668 points) to move into 18th place on the NBA’s all-time regular-season scoring list. He’ll just need to have another 40+ point masterpiece to surpass Oscar Robertson next.
A little redemption for Doncic, he finished with 37 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. His first-quarter stat line is the first time in the play-by-play era that a player recorded those numbers in a single quarter of an NBA game.
Despite his heroics, which included answering Curry’s crossover sequence with a deep three-pointer on the very next possession, the Lakers fell to 0-1 in NBA Cup group play, while the Warriors secured their third consecutive victory.