Barber: Steph Curry, the Warriors superstar we take for granted

OAKLAND - Man, that was some game at Oracle Arena on Saturday night. I mean, the Celtics hitting 50 percent of their 28 3-point attempts, and the Warriors' nine blocked shots, and the way the Golden State second unit opened the second quarter with a 10-0 run, and …

Oh, and Stephen Curry. Good old Steph Curry, the Warriors' game-changing shooter.

Guess I forgot about Curry for a minute as I sifted through the minutiae of another Warriors win, and another Warriors playoff run. Hey, it happens.

“I think when a guy has been an MVP twice, you just sort of accept the fact that he is one of the best players in the world,” coach Steve Kerr said after his team's hard-fought 109-105 win against the Boston Celtics. “When he was on the rise and the MVPs happened, it was maybe a bigger story. But maybe that's the sign of true greatness, when people just expect it every night.

“We expect it every night,” Kerr added, emphasizing the “we” to make it clear he was referring to the Warriors, “because it happens almost every night. He's just a special, special player.”

If taking the transcendent for granted is indeed the sign of greatness, then Curry has joined the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in the NBA pantheon. Because even as he puts up All-Star numbers, it's easy to overlook how vital he is to the Warriors' fortunes.

This was one of those games that jolts you back to reality. The Celtics have the best record in the Eastern Conference, even after Saturday's loss, and third best in the NBA. They have the league's highest-rated defense. And they looked every bit the contender at Oracle. The Warriors didn't lead until the 10:23 mark of the third quarter. And even after the home team built a five-point margin on Curry's driving layup with 1:08 left in the game, the visitors wouldn't go away.

In particular, Kyrie Irving was incredible. This should not be a surprise to anyone who has followed the Warriors the past few years, because Irving has frequently shredded them. He scored 37 points Saturday, connecting on five of six 3-pointers and 13 of 18 shots overall. Irving was dazzling in the process. He shot off of spin moves, he shot while falling, he shot with a hand in his mug, and everything seemed to go in.

Irving and the Celtics would have been too much to handle on this night, except the Warriors had Curry. They usually do; it's just easy to forget when Kevin Durant is taking over down the stretch or Klay Thompson is exploding for a quarter.

Even Draymond Green, the Warriors power forward, understands the apathy. He was asked after the game whether it feels new every time Curry comes to a boil like this.

“Uhh, I wouldn't necessarily say new,” Green replied. “But it's still exciting, you see some of the shots that he makes. And tonight I don't even think there were many crazy ones. Like, we've seen him go off, and there's like some bomb from halfcourt. You know, between the legs, cross over, behind the back, step back, falling away - a three that hits nothing but net. … Obviously, 49 is 49, but I've seen crazier. So unfortunately for him, I'm not that impressed by what he did.”

Green laughed and exited the podium. We all laughed with him. But there was a kernel of truth to what he was saying. When it comes to Curry, we have a collective case of highlight fatigue. All he did against Boston was score 49 points, his highest total this season and his second-highest ever at Oracle. Ho-hum.

Green was right about one thing. Curry didn't hit many ridiculous shots in this one. But man, that third quarter. The Celtics led 54-50 at halftime. It took Curry exactly 21 seconds to hit his first shot of the second half. A minute later he splashed a 3-pointer. Fifteen seconds after that he stole the ball from Irving, a takeaway that led to a Durant dunk at the other end. The Warriors had their first lead.

They would trail for less than a minute over the rest of the game, thanks largely to Curry's 18-point quarter.

“You saw kind of the twitch,” teammate Shaun Livingston said of Curry's third quarter. “Like, OK, he's into it, you know what I mean? He might miss a couple of easy shots. But he got going in that third quarter, and once he gets going, it's like, ‘All right, well, this is my time.' It's a feel. It's not like he's searching.”

Before the game, I had watched Curry warm up for a while. It's another supernatural phenomenon that we have come to take for granted. I watched as the 29-year-old superstar worked on his step-back move - catch the ball from coach Bruce Fraser, feint toward the basket, take a giant step backward and launch a jumper. At the 4:20 mark of the third, he put the move into action and nailed a 3-pointer. A minute and a half later, he hit another trey. Forty seconds after that, he got another. Not even Irving could keep up.

“When he's making shots like that, it makes it easier for their team to create separation,” Irving said. “And for us, we were getting within four, within two, and then Steph was hitting some big bombs to create that separation. That's your telltale sign of a great player.”

Livingston, who is in his 13th NBA season (and his fourth with Golden State), emphasized that Curry plays the game the right way.

“What's most incredible, he's able to do that and teammates can coexist,” Livingston said. “Everybody can do what they do. Some guys that go for theirs, they can suck the life out of teammates. (The teammates) don't touch the ball. Steph's the rarest player. He'll go for his, and do it in the flow of the game, and teammates can still feel some rhythm because they're touching the ball.”

Curry has set so many NBA records by now that it's hard to keep track. But he keeps finding new thresholds to cross. Saturday was his fifth consecutive game with five or more made 3-pointers. He did that once before, in February/March of 2016. The NBA record is six in a row, set by Dallas' George McCloud in 1995-96.

“I'm shooting 30 threes next game,” Curry said when informed of the milestone.

More laughter. Because that's a funny image, right? Stephen Curry heaving low-percentage shot after low-percentage shot, just to reach a milestone. It would never happen.

Less than a half-hour after the game was over, a noted NBA analyst went on Twitter to laud the Warriors' selfless star. “As much attention as Steph Curry gets, his stock amongst some ‘serious' basketball analysts seems to have dropped a bit of late. They should watch the replay from tonight. He's clutch, cool under pressure, and playing a game we haven't seen before.”

A nice reminder - from legendary newsman Dan Rather. Yes, those of us who watch Curry every week are probably a bit jaded to his heroics. It's good to hear from somebody outside the box once in a while, to jog our memory.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.