Curry hits 51, hits 3 in record 128th straight game as Warriors go 52-5

Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors continued their march to NBA greatness and set new records in a 130 – 114 victory against Orlando Magic on Thursday.

Warriors extended their record to 52-5 for the season to remain on course to beat the 1995/96 Chicago Bulls’ record 72 regular season wins.

Curry’s three-pointer with 5:45 remaining in the opening quarter was the 128th consecutive game he’d scored from long distance, edging him past Atlanta Hawks sharpshooter Kyle Korver’s previous record set between November 2012 and March 2014.

His last game without a three-pointer was on November 11, 2014, and he has made at least one in 202 of his past 203 games.

Curry now has 276 three-pointers this season and remains on course to smash his own record of 286 set in 2014/15. He owns the three highest single-season totals for 3-pointers – the current season, last season and his haul of 272 in 2012-13. The next best on the list is Ray Allen (269, 2005-06).

“Steph is a lot better,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Which is scary, because he was the MVP last season.”

However, Kerr played down the significance of the record, saying that Curry had made 3-pointers too easy to be considered special.

“Why is that significant? I don’t know if the record is that significant because it’s so simple for him,” Kerr said. “A 3-point shot is like a layup. A half-court shot is like a 3-point shot. Steph just, that’s what he does, so it’s to the point where we expect everything to go in.”

Curry topped 50 points for the third time this season, the first player to do it that many times since LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in 2008-09. This comes a day after a 42-point performance in a six-point win over Miami on Wednesday night.

The record-breaking moment wasn’t the best highlight of the game – that came at the end of the third quarter, when the reigning MVP received a pass following a free throw, took a couple of dribbles before launching a 44-foot shot that banked in at the buzzer. Curry struck a pose, then chuckled as he made his way back to the bench.

“I was laughing, sure. That really isn’t supposed to happen,” Curry said. “I made a bunch of 3s in the third quarter and then finished with that one,” he added. “It was really funny to me, it just banked off the glass.”

“Are you guys surprised?” Magic guard Evan Fournier asked reporters. “I’m not. It’s just what he does.”

The win pushed the Warriors to the best 57-game start in NBA history. The Bulls were 51-6 through 57 games in 1995-96.

With eight of their next ten games at home and just eight of their remaining 25 games on the road, Warriors look well placed to challenge the Bulls’ mark.

Interim coach Luke Walton may have been playing down Warriors chances of breaking the record, but Curry confirmed if the team has an opportunity to go for it they will.

He said: “How many chances are you going to get to be a team that passes that record?

“Obviously everybody’s still talking about the 95-96 Bulls – one, because of their record, and two, because they finished it off with a championship.

“We want to be able to do both, too.”

Warriors are back in action on Sunday when they travel to face Oklahoma City Thunder. The two teams met at the start of February, with the Warriors running out 116-108 winners.

Thunder have lost their last two games at home to Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers.