Every Halloween, while the rest of the world debates candy corn and whether someone’s costume is “too soon,” I find myself falling back into the same beautiful ritual. I pull up Basketball Reference, I scan through the October 31st performances, and I confirm what I already know: Stephen Curry still owns the most terrifying night in NBA history.
Fifty-three points. October 31, 2015. New Orleans Arena. Anthony Davis and the Pelicans probably still have nightmares.
I checked the numbers again this year because honestly, with the way scoring has exploded across the league, I assumed someone had to have eclipsed it by now. Devin Booker dropped 40 just last night. But no. Curry’s 53-point Halloween massacre remains untouched after a full decade. That’s not just a great performance. That’s legacy-defining domination.
The efficiency is what separates this from every other big scoring night. Curry didn’t need 35 shots and a prayer. He went 17-of-27 from the field, 8-of-14 from three, and perfect from the line. Perfect. When you’re dropping 53 and you don’t miss a single free throw, you’re not just hot. You’re transcendent.
But here’s the detail that makes this performance genuinely horrifying for anyone who had to guard him: 28 points in the third quarter alone. While the Pelicans scored 26 as a team, Curry personally outscored them by himself. That’s not basketball. That’s a supernatural takeover.
And the context matters. This wasn’t some random regular season game where the Warriors needed saving. They were coming off a championship. Curry was the reigning MVP. He’d already dropped 40 on the Pelicans just four days earlier on Opening Night. This was a back-to-back game, the team wasn’t sharp, and Curry just decided the basketball gods needed a sacrifice.
What I love most about revisiting this game every year is remembering how Curry approached it. He hit a 31-footer over Anthony Davis after getting the ball poked away, then casually called it “a dumb shot that went in.” That’s the Curry experience in one sentence: making the impossible look routine, then shrugging it off like he just made a layup in warmups.
The Halloween nickname writes itself. While everyone else dresses up as something scary, Curry becomes the thing that haunts opposing defenses. He’s the monster under the bed for every team that thought they could contain him with length and athleticism. Davis had every physical advantage that night, and it didn’t matter. Curry made him look like a helpless victim in a horror movie, desperately reaching for something that was always just out of reach.
Ten years later, the record still stands. Scoring is up. Stars are hunting numbers more than ever. And yet, nobody has matched what Curry did that Halloween night in New Orleans. Maybe that’s the ultimate testament to how special that performance truly was. It wasn’t just great. It was genuinely terrifying.
Happy Halloween, Dub Nation. Our guy is still the undisputed king of October 31st.
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