Stephen Curry took his MVP form in the Warriors' latest Clippers blowout

The conventional wisdom on Stephen Curry’s performance in the 2016-17 season says that he has suffered from the Golden State Warriors’ offseason acquisition of Kevin Durant. The back-to-back MVP has been excellent and certainly good enough to warrant an All-Star nod (though perhaps not as a starter), but he has failed to match the admittedly unprecedented standards he set during his incredible 2015-16 campaign. Curry is still the league’s preeminent perimeter threat, but he has not captured the same level of excellence on off-the-dribble, several-feet-past-the-line three-pointers.

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Curry suggested Saturday that this narrative has been a bit overblown. Despite being listed as questionable due to a sore quad, Curry dominated a nationally televised matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers with the kind of showing that’s made him such a sensation around the sport. With 43 points (15-of-23 FG, 9-of-15 3FG), nine rebounds, and six assists, Curry was the biggest reason for the Warriors’ absurd 144-98 blowout win.

Curry inflicted the bulk of his damage in the third quarter, when he scored 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, including a 5-of-8 mark from deep. By contrast, the Clippers scored only 23 points in the quarter on 8-of-24 shooting from the field and went just 2-of-10 on threes. Curry was simply scintillating, shooting from anywhere on the floor and looking unguardable.

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However, he didn’t look good for only those 12 minutes. Curry was also excellent in the first half, putting up his other 18 points with slightly lower levels of confidence and flair. Plus, he headed into halftime on a high after draining this half-court buzzer-beater:

That fall to the floor after chest-bumping Draymond Green is pretty much the only thing that went wrong for Curry on Saturday. Even then, he was able to turn it into a positive.

Then again, it wasn’t all Curry — perhaps the most impressive thing of the Warriors win is that they did so much else right. Golden State shot 62 percent from the field, made 17-of-34 three-pointers, and scored 86 points between the second and third quarters. Their 45 in the third was the highest total in a quarter this NBA season, and their 117 points through three quarters was also a new-league high. With Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson joining Curry with a combined 39 points on 16-of-22 shooting, the Clippers had no hope of defending with any consistency.

It was a very bad night for the visitors, who have now lost four of five since Chris Paul injured his thumb. Blake Griffin provided a thin silver lining with 20 points in his second game back following knee surgery, but he also finished with a minus-34 in just 23 minutes and often looked overmatched when Green defended him. The circumstances of this loss are understandable, but the Clippers have dropped eight straight to the Warriors and don’t seem likely to take their next matchup on Thursday at Oracle Arena.

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For all those other stories, though, it was difficult to focus on anything but Curry both during and after Saturday’s game. As head coach Steve Kerr said in his post-game press conference, Curry is returning to his prior comfort level and playing with the freedom that defined his rise to superstardom:

The rest of the NBA has plenty of reason to be very afraid.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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