Steph Curry perfect from 3 as Warriors blow out 76ers

On January 3, 2025By Littum

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry sprained the thumb on his shooting hand in the Warriors’ last game against the Cavaliers, putting him on the official injury report.

It was impossible to tell Thursday night.

Playing with his thumb, Curry drained all eight of his 3-pointers. He finished with 30 points, 10 assists and six rebounds.

The Warriors won his minutes by 32 points. He holds the NBA record for games with at least eight 3-pointers, but he had never made that many without missing a single one. His previous record for perfect 3-point shooting was 6-for-6.

The 76ers had their entire big three of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George healthy for a change, but the Warriors (17-16) embarrassed them, 139-105. Curry led the way as the Warriors shared the ball beautifully, played with tempo and tamed Philadelphia’s three-headed monster.

In the Warriors’ highest scoring game since the season opener, they assisted on 42 of their 52 field goals made. Golden State shot a whopping 60.9% from the field and 56.4% from behind the arc.

Heading into 2025, the Warriors were optimistic they could put their shooting woes behind them. The win over Philadelphia certainly looked like proof of concept.

Dennis Schroder, who has struggled mightily on offense in his first few weeks as a Warrior, drained each of his first three 3-pointers. Jonathan Kuminga (20 points, five assists, five rebounds) hit a 3-pointer over Joel Embiid as part of a seven-point burst in three minutes. Moses Moody made another one to break Philadelphia’s zone. Even Buddy Hield, who had sunk just two of his last 25 3-pointers, hit a corner 3.

The Warriors shot 7-for-11 from deep in a 35-19 first quarter. On the other end, the Sixers certainly looked like they were on the second night of a back-to-back. A step slow and uncalibrated, Philadelphia missed its first seven 3s and Embiid went 2-for-6 from the floor against Trayce Jackson-Davis and Draymond Green.

Steve Kerr wants to keep the current starting lineup — and replacements behind it — mostly intact for the time being. Ability vs. Embiid, bigs Kevon Looney and Kyle Anderson remained out of the rotation.

Part of the biggest keys with the current rotation is featuring Kuminga in different ways: as the focal point of the second unit, alongside Steph Curry and Green as a slasher and while playing the starter’s minutes.

With the ball in his hands more often, Kuminga has had arguably the best weeks of his career. On Thursday, he provided four assists in his first half (and could have had two more).

Even when the Sixers found their outside stroke, the Warriors kept pace and took a 16-point lead into halftime. Their small-ball lineup with Kuminga at power forward next to Green generated a myriad of clean looks, especially against Philadelphia’s zone. Golden State had 22 assists on 26 buckets in the first half.

When they hit shots, the Warriors could easily play smaller even against 76ers lineups with Embiid and Guerschon Yabusele. They pulled the big stuff away from the paint and worked inside and out.

As always, it started with Curry. He hit his first six 3-pointers, including an interjected heat check over Paul George. After it somehow went down, he put his hands on his head in disbelief.

During Curry’s run, Kerr tried to lay him out. Curry refused and continued to rain down shots.

The next possession, he jumped back on defense after stepping a crown across the court to Andrew Wiggins in the corner. Then he hit a step-back two over Eric Gordon to put the Warriors up 25 — their biggest lead of the night.

Curry scored 13 in the third quarter and put the Sixers way back on their heels. For fun, Curry hit two more 3s minutes into the fourth quarter, pushing both his scoring total and Golden State’s lead to 30. He and the rest of Golden State’s regulars watched the final eight minutes of the game from the bench.