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Curry Passed Oscar Robertson Like It Was No Big Deal, and the Warriors Forgot How to Lose

Basketball resting on a polished court in a brightly lit, empty arena

By Dakota Jones

Intro

An 0-3 start used to sound like the opening paragraph of a season’s eulogy. Golden State has spent the last three weeks making that obituary look premature.

On Thursday night at Chase Center in San Francisco, the Warriors beat the Miami Heat 120-100 for their sixth straight win. Stephen Curry passed Oscar Robertson into 17th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, then finished one point short of a fourth consecutive 30-point game. He was not exactly having an ordinary night. He just made the milestone look like part of the routine.

The Heat, meanwhile, left town at 3-6. The Warriors are 6-3, including 4-1 at home, and sit second in the Pacific behind the 7-2 Lakers. That is a considerable change of mood for a team that opened the season with three straight losses.

What Happened

Curry’s milestone arrived early. At the 7:03 mark of the first quarter, he hit a three-pointer to pass Robertson, who finished his career with 26,710 points, and move into 17th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

The timing was neat. The shooting, initially, was not. Curry started 1-of-8 and was 2-of-10 at halftime. Then the third quarter happened.

Golden State turned a close game into a comfortable lead by outscoring Miami 26-9 during one stretch of the third. The Warriors won that quarter 38-23, then added 29 points in the fourth. Miami never recovered.

Curry finished with 29 points on 9-of-19 shooting, including six three-pointers on 6-of-12 shooting from deep. He made all five of his free throws, added four assists, and recorded zero turnovers. Once the game was out of hand, he sat. The 30-point streak stopped at three games, an almost comically small footnote to a night that included an all-time scoring milestone.

Golden State also got a season-high 11 assists from Draymond Green, who finished with two points and five rebounds. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg contributed 17 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Georges Niang added 13 points off the bench. As a team, the Warriors shot 53% from the field and 16-of-41, or 39%, from three-point range.

Miami’s leading scorers were Davion Mitchell with 22 points and eight assists, Giannis Antetokounmpo with 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Bam Adebayo with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Heat shot 41% from the field and 13-of-44, or 30%, from three. Those numbers tell a blunt story: Golden State made its shots at a better rate, especially from beyond the arc, and delivered the quarter that decided the game.

Thursday was also reunion night. Klay Thompson, now with Miami, returned to Chase Center and received a warm ovation before tipoff. He scored 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. The night before, he had hit the game-winning three with one second left in overtime of Miami’s 117-116 win over the Clippers. Andrew Wiggins, also a former Warrior, scored two points on 1-of-6 shooting.

Golden State was without Jimmy Butler III, listed with a right ACL injury; Kristaps Porzingis, for personal reasons; Moses Moody, with a left patellar tendon injury; and Gui Santos, with left knee tendinitis. The attendance was 18,064.

The evening had a short NBA slate: Phoenix beat Orlando 117-104, with Devin Booker scoring 30, and the NHL had an 11-game slate. The Warriors-Heat game was the night’s biggest NBA story, and it did not need a crowded schedule to make its case.

Why It Matters

Golden State’s comeback is the point, not just the winning streak. At 0-3, the Warriors looked like a team that might spend the season explaining its start. At 6-3, they are the league’s best comeback story three weeks into the season. The standings still put the Lakers ahead in the Pacific, but the Warriors have changed the conversation from “what went wrong?” to “how far can this run go?”

Curry’s milestone matters for a different reason. He is still adding to the all-time scoring ledger in his later years, and he did it on a night when his shot was not falling early. No dramatic speech required. One three-pointer, one place higher on the list, back to work.

And then there was Thompson. The warm ovation made the reunion personal without turning it into a fairy tale. He had just supplied a game-winner for Miami the night before. In San Francisco, he came back in the opposing uniform and scored 11. Basketball, unlike nostalgia, does not promise a perfect ending. It does promise that the crowd will notice.

Golden State also honored Jason Collins, the late twin brother of former assistant coach Jarron Collins, on Pride Night. Jarron attended. It was a moment of remembrance on a night otherwise defined by a sharp change in the game’s direction.

FAQ

What was Curry’s scoring milestone?
His first-quarter three moved him past Oscar Robertson’s 26,710 career points and into 17th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

How did the Warriors turn the game around?
They outscored Miami 26-9 during a decisive stretch in the third quarter and won the period 38-23.

What comes next for the teams?
Miami visits Sacramento on Sunday. Golden State hosts Orlando on Saturday.

Verdict

The Warriors did not erase their 0-3 start. They made it look less important, which is probably more useful.

Curry passed Robertson while finishing just shy of 30. Golden State’s third-quarter run took the suspense out of the game, and its six-game winning streak has turned an early-season panic into real momentum. The next test is whether the Warriors can keep building while the Pacific-leading Lakers remain ahead.

For now, the answer is simple: the Warriors have stopped playing like a team waiting for its season to begin. And Curry is still moving up the list.

Sources