Say this about the first three nights of the 2025-26 NBA season: It absolutely sucks that a federal gambling probe seemingly fell out of the sky to overshadow what has been one of the most electric starts to a season you could possibly imagine.
First the Rockets and Thunder go to double-overtime on Tuesday. Then the Pacers take the Thunder, again, to double-overtime on Thursday. OKC, thanks to some incredible defense against Houston and a career-high 55 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at Indiana, escaped both with a win, and both times it was the Golden State Warriors waiting on the back end on of the national TV schedule for 12 quarters of OKC basketball to finish.
On opening night, the Warriors discarded the Lakers despite 43 points from Luka Dončić. On Thursday, they backed that up with a 137-131 overtime victory over the Denver Nuggets, who were led by Aaron Gordon’s unbelievable 50-point performance.
Gordon, a career 33% 3-point shooter who came out of nowhere to shoot 44% last season, showed that it might not have been an anomaly as he canned 10 of his 11 triples and 17 of 21 field goals overall. How on earth could the Nuggets have lost a game in which Gordon, Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray combined for 96 points?
I’ll tell you how. His name is Stephen Curry.
If you’re looking for signs that Curry has fallen off, even slightly, in his 17th season at 37 years old, you better get out one hell of a high-powered microscope. The guy went for 42 points, 35 of which came in the second half and overtime, with six 3-pointers, single-handedly lifting Golden State with 16 straight points over a six-minute run spanning the end of the fourth quarter and the start of overtime.
From the 2:42 mark of the fourth quarter, Curry outscored the Nuggets, 18-15, all by himself. Multiple times the Nuggets looked like they were about to put the game on ice, and Curry just wouldn’t let it happen. With under two minutes to play in regulation and the Warriors down three, he did this:
With 25 seconds left and the Warriors again down three, he did this:
He started overtime with another 3, and sealed the deal with a bucket and a pair of free throws in the closing 25 seconds of overtime to push the Warriors to 2-0 with the sort of “what the hell did I just watch?” performance that only he can pull off.
What’s crazy is Curry only had seven points at halftime. Even at this advanced stage of a career that continues on an upward trend toward one of the five best in history, he can still go from zero to 100 faster that any player probably ever. Still, at 37 years old, it feels like he can wake up from a nap and hit the nuclear button whenever he wants. He tossed in seven assists, six rebounds and three steals for fun.
Seriously, Curry has not lost one mph on his fastball. If anything, he’s actually better now than ever. Maybe not quite as shifty, but still among the shiftiest players alive with his handle and ability to leverage the threat of his shot into downhill advantages, where he’s as strong as he’s ever been in terms of finishing through contact.
And the shooting? Obviously that’s still there. As is his seemingly endless supply of energy to stay on the move with an entire defense chasing him for as long as it takes to get a shot, and ultimately, a win. This guy is out of this world. I know I’m not breaking any news with that statement, but good grief. What an absolute treat it is to still be watching him do his this after all these years, and also to know that he’s far from done.
