Steph Curry put on a show Wednesday night at Oracle Arena, pouring in a playoff career-high 47 points in Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
Unfortunately for Curry and the undermanned Dubs, it wasn't enough, as the Raptors hot shooting led them to a 123-109 win and a two-games-to-one series lead.
Since Toronto walked away with the win, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse didn't put a lot of stock in Curry's impressive performance.
"Listen, we were trying to play as straight up as we could," Nurse told reporters after the win. "We wanted to get back to doing what we normally do. We didn't do anything really early in the game other than just try to play him. He had a ton in the first half. We tried to up our presence on him a little bit with some double teams, but it doesn't really matter, right, I mean, I don't really -- all that matters is -- my dad used to tell me the stats don't matter, just the final score. So we'll just take the win and be thankful for that."
While the Raptors will be thrilled with pulling ahead in the series, it would have been hard not to be wowed by the show Curry put on.
With Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson out with injuries, Curry did everything he could to put the Warriors in a position to win, landing himself in historic company in the process.
Sports
With 47 PTS tonight, Stephen Curry becomes the ninth player in @NBAHistory to score 45+ PTS in a #NBAFinals game, joining
Elgin Baylor, Rick Barry, LeBron James, Michael Jordan (3x), Jerry West (3x) Bob Pettit, Allen Iverson, and Wilt Chamberlain. pic.twitter.com/BRC9zas07A— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) June 6, 2019
Behind closed doors, there's no doubt Nurse and the Raptors know they dodged a bullet Wednesday night. With Thompson and possibly Durant expected to return in Game 4, Toronto could not afford to lose Game 3 to Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors' role players.
Curry's historic performance almost dealt the Raptors a blow that would be hard to come back from.
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As it stands, the Warriors will need Thompson and Durant to return as soon as possible to keep their dreams of a three-peat alive. One thing's for sure after Game 3, all the talk of Curry having lackluster NBA Finals performances should be dead and buried.
