Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors put on a dominant display against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. After quickly jumping out to a 25-point lead, the Warriors never really looked back (besides a slight scare in the third quarter) as they coasted to a 123-112 victory.
Curry finished the game with an efficient 23 points, knocking down 7 of his 13 shots from the floor and 4 of his 6 attempts from deep.
The now-35-year-old (Happy Birthday!) had his biggest highlight of the night about halfway through the second quarter.
Curry drove past Suns guard Chris Paul on the baseline and then finished through contact for an and-1.
After the play he could be seen saying “this ain’t 2014 no more,” talking some trash to Paul.
Curry’s teammate, Draymond Green, knows a thing or two about talking trash. He gave the 3-point-king his seal of approval, during the most recent edition of his pgodcast.
“Steph had CP (Chris Paul) below the break, he hit him with a couple of moves and got an amazing and-1,” Green recalled on the March 14 episode of The Draymond Green Show. “And if you read his lips, he got up and he said, ‘this ain’t 2014 no more.’ And I appreciated the bar by Steph Curry because you gotta dig into that comment. That’s pretty much saying that ‘the last time you were better than me since 2014.’ That was nine years ago. Like this haven’t been a debate since 2014. Nine years ago? That’s almost a decade. That’s a bar. So I just hope that those that enjoy that part of the game, which I do, that you appreciated that bar.”
Chris Paul Responds to Warriors’ Stephen Curry’s Trash Talk
Paul was asked about what Curry had said to him after Monday’s meeting at Chase Center.
“S***, I don’t know what happened in 2014,” he said via AZCentral’s Duane Rankin. “Y’all tell me — 2014, that was like nine years ago. What happened?”
Phoenix’s point guard then pivoted to a different time in his relationship with Curry, ahead of the four-time NBA champion’s rookie year.
Paul did remember one thing about his history with Curry, though.
“(Back in 2009]), he spent the whole summer with me and my family,” Paul recalled. “You know what I mean? So, I know about 2009. But 2014, what was that? That was my third year with the Clippers? I don’t know. If y’all got time, go ask him,” Paul added.
Warriors’ Stephen Curry Breaks Down Chris Paul Trash Talk
Reporters took Paul’s advice and later caught up with Golden State’s baby-faced assassin.
Curry explained to the media that the competitive flare came from a place of love.
“It’s all competition,” Curry said, via the Golden State Warriors YouTube channel. “You play against somebody for so many years, and the love I got for him because of our history and all that. It’s just competition back and forth. Give it and take it.”
After their March 13 victory over Phoenix, Golden State inched a bit closer to the fourth seed in the Western Conference. They sit just 1.5 games back of the Suns with 13 games still left to play.
Clinching the fourth seed would be huge for the Dubs heading into the playoffs. It would mean that they have home-court advantage in the first round, which would be helpful considering they’re just 7-26 on the road this year.