SAN ANTONIO — Warriors star Stephen Curry‘s Friday night started in a pair of Kobe 6’s, which the new sneaker free agent wore during pregame warmups to signal to the apparel world that he was open for business.
«New beginnings,» he said.
But Curry’s Friday night ended in his familiar shoes and back in a familiar place, toeing the free throw line with the game on the line and a road arena roaring in his ear.
Swish. Swish. Curry made both, capping a 49-point night to rally the Warriors to a 109-108 survival win over the Spurs.
«I’m not wondering if he’s going to make them or not,» Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Curry’s free throws. «I think everyone expects it.»
Trailing by one and pushing it in transition, Curry baited De’Aaron Fox into a reach-in foul with 6.4 seconds left. As he dramatically circled back toward the line, the opposing star of the night, Victor Wembanyama, turned to a louder section of the Spurs’ crowd and implored the fans to get animated and possibly spook Curry into a miss.
«Absolutely,» Curry said when asked if he saw it. «I played into it.»
Between makes, Curry walked several feet closer to the crowd and, mocking Wembanyama, begged the crowd to get even louder. He then backed up, sank the second free throw and — after a defensive stop on Fox at the buzzer — gave the Warriors a second straight victory in San Antonio with a second straight volcanic performance.
On Wednesday night, Curry scored 46 points in a more convincing win over the Spurs, doing a chunk of his damage at the free throw line. Curry made 15 of 16 from the line that night and is now 66 of 70 on free throws this season, putting him on track to lead the league in percentage for the sixth time in his career.
Before Friday night’s contest, Curry was told that he had just scored 40-plus in a game for the 43rd time since his 30th birthday, one shy of Michael Jordan’s league record of 44.
So when Curry hit a fourth-quarter 3 — one of his nine made 3s on Friday night — to top the 40-point hump, he put up a «2» and a «3» with his fingers while jogging back down the court, an ode to Jordan for tying his record.
«I threw it up backward though,» Curry said. «That’s the second time I’ve done that. But that’s pretty cool just from an individual accomplishment perspective. Longevity is something I pride myself on.»
This was first time Curry has scored 40-plus in back-to-back games since 2022, and it came at a needed time for the previously wheezing Warriors, who had lost six straight road games before landing in San Antonio.
Curry recently missed three games because of an illness and struggled to an inefficient 13-point night in his first game back Tuesday, huffing for air during the second half of a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But his wind returned quickly. Curry looked fresh in both wins against the Spurs. According to GeniusIQ, Curry scored 28 of his Friday night points on off-the-dribble jumpers, his most in a game since 2015.
Afterward, he gave a bit of credit to a morning speech from Kerr.
«He rarely talks about his Chicago days,» Curry said. «He gave some references to how they approached their team and their identity by comparisons to a band coming together. You got your lead singers, your bass, your acoustic, electric, drummer, stagehands, guys plugging in the speaker. He said he was just above the guy plugging in the speaker.»
Curry acknowledged that he was the lead singer on this night, generating headlines with his pregame sneaker choice and then silencing the crowd with his performance.
