Steph Curry breaks out in historic rout, still got scolded by mom for his mouth
It took Steph Curry a while to get going, but once he broke out of his shooting slump in the second half of Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, the rout was on.
In a historic beatdown, the Warriors whipped the Rockets at home 126-85 to take a 2-1 series lead.
The 41-point margin of victory was the largest in Golden State playoff history. It was also the biggest defeat in Houston playoff history.
Curry had been coming off of two lackluster games in Houston, going a combined 2-for-13 from 3-point land. He scored just 18 points in Game 1 and 16 in Game 2.
In the first half of Game 3, his shooting improved as he went 2-for-6 from 3 in the first half with 12 points.
But then in the third quarter, Curry went off, scoring 18 of his game-high 35 points to turn an 11-point halftime lead into a 21-point lead after three quarters.
Curry was a perfect 7-for-7 in the third, including two 3-pointers.
After a driving hoop in that breakout quarter, Curry took out his mouthpiece and shouted to the cheering crowd, “This is my f—-ing house!“
This did not sit well with his mother, Sonya Curry.
“She already sent me two home videos, showing me the clip and playing it back,” Curry told ESPN after the game. “She was telling me how I need to wash my mouth out, saying to wash it out with soap. It’s a message I’ve heard before.”
“She’s right,” he added. “I gotta do better. I can’t talk like that.”
Curry ended up going 13-for-23, including 5-for-12 from beyond the arc.
At the postgame press conference, a reporter asked what broke him out of his mini-slump.
“A lot of it was just talking to myself, almost, like you’ve got to be your biggest fan sometimes,” Curry said.
“No matter what questions I was being asked over the first two games or what the expectation was, I have the highest expectations for myself,” he said. “And you’ve just got to — find whatever it is to get going. I mean, obviously, it felt good, and you want to use that energy to show your teammates that you’re here, you’re with them, get the crowd into it. But it’s one game, and you’ve got to have that same type of energy and intentions and focus the next game and the right approach.
“So I did my job tonight. I’ve got to do it again.”
The Rockets, on the other hand, now face, if not a must-win situation in Game 4, a game that they need to win.
Houston coach Mike D’Antoni summed up his team’s performance in a word: soft.
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“Played soft, actually. I mean, you can’t do that with these guys. These guys are good,” D’Antoni said after the game.
“They gave us a haymaker and we went down,” the coach added. “Again, we have short memories, have to. It’s 2-1, and we’ve got to get one up here. This next one, we’ve got to go get it.”
Game 4 is Tuesday night at Oracle Arena.
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