Stephen Curry tied Michael Jordan's record with another huge night, dropping 49 points to beat the Spurs as he credited a rare, band-themed motivational speech from Steve Kerr for fueling his back-to-back 40-point performances.
Stephen Curry went off for 49 points to drag the Golden State Warriors to a 109–108 escape against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night.
That came right after he dropped 46 on the Spurs on Wednesday. Two games, 95 points — not bad for a 37-year-old. But according to Curry, the real spark came from Steve Kerr's pregame speech.
"He's broken clipboards along the way, he's gotten techs — he gets fiery. This morning, he gave a speech in our pregame meeting," Curry said after the game. "And you could tell, like, he still has that fastball if he needs it. And it's important for us to have that energy, and over the course of 82 games, we're all in this fight together.
"I think he talked about that this morning. He showed it out there, and whether you win or lose, you just want to have a unit and a team that's together, coaches included."
So, what was different about Kerr's speech?
"He rarely talks about his Chicago days, and he gave some references to how they approached their team and their identity by comparisons to how a band comes together and everybody playing their role," Steph noted.
"You got your lead singers, you got your bass, your acoustic, your electric, whatever. You got your drummers. You got the stagehands. You got the guy who's plugging in the speakers. He said he was just above plugging in the speaker guy," Curry added with a smile.
"It all matters. There's value in all of that. When a band's going on a tour, I think Phil Jackson instilled that in him, and he used that as a reference for how we need to play and how we need to approach our identity. It's going to take a long time to get through this year in terms of doing that, but it's great to have a reference."
And on this night, Curry happily admitted he was the lead singer.
"I was Hayley Williams in Paramore tonight," he joked.
The performance also put Steph in the history books: it was his 44th 40-point game since turning 30, tying Michael Jordan's NBA record.
It was also the first time Curry's gone for 40-plus in back-to-back games since 2022.
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