It's hard to imagine these days, but Stephen Curry was not always considered to be headed on a path toward all-time greatness. Curry averaged a solid yet unspectacular 17.5 points per game in his first three years in the league, even playing behind journeyman guard Acie Law at times during the 2010-11 season.
The narrative around Curry started to shift after he dropped what was then a career-high 54 points against the Knicks on Feb. 27, 2013. ESPN's Doris Burke noted the shift during the broadcast.
"For a guy who a lot of people questioned, at 6-3 and 185 pounds, could he be effective in the league? He has put those concerns to rest," Burke said.
Curry's line from that night is timeless. He had 54 points on 18-of-28 shooting from the field, including 11-of-13 from 3-point range and a perfect 7-of-7 from the line. He also pitched in a team-high seven assists and three steals to top it off.
Raymond Felton, Pablo Prigioni and Iman Shumpert took turns guarding him. None of them stood a chance against his array of runners, transition triples and movement shooting.
Here's what you may not remember from that game.
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The Warriors actually lost Stephen Curry's breakout game
The Warriors had a great season, going from the 13th team in the Western Conference standings the previous year up to the sixth seed. But the Knicks were a 54-win powerhouse sitting behind only the LeBron James-led Heat in the Eastern Conference.
The Warriors got 54 points from Curry and not much else from his teammates. Carl Landry (15 points) and Jarrett Jack (14 points) were the only other Warriors to register double-digit points. Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes and Andris Biedrins started alongside Curry, combining for a measly 13 points.
Curry had tied the game up with two minutes left, but he was blocked on his next shot. His teammates turned it over twice, J.R. Smith scored and Carmelo Anthony hit the eventual dagger shot to get the Knicks the 109-105 win.
Stephen Curry's game against the Knicks was the best of any player all year
Curry's 54 points led the league in the 2012-13 season, back when those totals were hardly reached. For comparison's sake, players have scored 54 or more seven times so far this season.
To this day, only six opponents have scored more at Madison Square Garden — Michael Jordan with 55 points, Rick Barry with 57 points, Kobe Bryant and James Harden with 61 points, Elgin Baylor with 71 points and Wilt Chamberlain with 73 points.
Curry's 11 3-pointers were a Warriors franchise record at the time. He eventually went on to hit 13 in a game in 2016, but Thompson has the all-time record with 14.
Stephen Curry was a minutes machine
Ten years ago, the term load management did not exist in NBA parlance. Curry was coming off a season in which there were serious questions about his ankles, but he played in 78 games during the 2012-13 campaign anyway. He also averaged a career-high 38.2 minutes per game, the seventh-highest mark in the league.
Mark Jackson literally felt like he couldn't afford to take Curry out that night against the Knicks. Curry played all 48 minutes. To top it off, he averaged 42 minutes in a three-games-in-four-nights stretch following that Knicks game.
Curry somehow maintained his efficiency, averaging 33.8 points on 50.0/50.0/93.8 shooting splits through that grueling four-game stretch with almost no rest. You would never see a player try that during the regular season today.
Stephen Curry was wildly underappreciated nationally
The fans in the Bay Area may have known that they had a burgeoning star. The rest of the league wasn't quite so sure.
Curry had been snubbed from the All-Star Game just two weeks prior to playing the Knicks despite averaging 21.0 points, 6.6 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game before the break. The Warriors were 30-22 up to that point and deserved an All-Star representative, so coaches picked Curry's teammate, David Lee.
Whoops!
The Knicks were the ones pushing the 3-point shooting envelope, not the Warriors
The Warriors have widely been credited with dispelling the myth that jump-shooting teams can't win championships and pushing the game toward the 3-point revolution. But that didn't happen until Jackson left the team and Steve Kerr took over in 2014.
Back in the 2012-13 season, it was the Knicks under coach Mike Woodson who were leading the league in 3-point attempts. Woodson was experimenting with a revolutionary idea of playing lineups without a traditional center. That allowed Anthony to generate a ton of 3-pointers for the rest of his teammates.
The Warriors, on the other hand, were middle-of-the-pack in 3-point attempts despite having both Curry and Thompson on the roster. Curry took a game-high 13 3-pointers against the Knicks, but the Warriors still had only 27 attempts from deep to the Knicks' 34.
