Let's settle the fight the clip started. The crossover that put Luka Doncic on the Chase Center floor Friday night is not the nastiest ankle-breaker of Stephen Curry's career. That title has been taken for years, and the man who holds it already admitted it on camera. But if you're using the Luka clip to argue Curry is cooked at 38, you watched the wrong half of the game.
Midway through the third quarter, with the Lakers still in front, Golden State spent the second half hunting Doncic, screening until he had to switch onto Curry. Curry hunted that matchup down himself. Once Doncic was isolated on the left wing, Curry worked him over with the dribble, sent him toppling, paused to look at him, and swished a three over the wreckage. Then he grabbed his own face and ran back on defense with both hands on his head like he'd shocked himself. Curry did that himself, no help from a teammate, no busted coverage behind him.
Now the superlative. The internet wants this to be the greatest crossover he's ever thrown, and it isn't, because Chris Paul exists. Back in 2015, in a 110-106 win over the Clippers, Curry dropped one of the best guards alive with a behind-the-back double crossover and calmly buried the open jumper. That play still gets replayed a decade later. Paul himself eventually shrugged and said, "Listen, he got me." When the victim concedes it that cleanly, the case is closed. The Luka clip is filthy and shareable, but Chris Paul still owns the crueler one, and pretending otherwise invites someone to pull up the tape and win the argument for you.
Rating
RatingDrop the ranking and look at what Doncic did Friday. He was magnificent. He torched Golden State for 21 points in the first quarter alone and had the Lakers up 38-15. He finished with 37 points, seven rebounds and five assists. On the possession right after Curry turned his ankles into a highlight, he answered with a tough three of his own. Luka won the box score.
He just didn't win the night, because the game turned anyway. Golden State erased a 25-point deficit and won 112-95, with Curry fueling an 18-0 run on a midrange jumper, a three and a technical free throw. His final line: 31 points, eight threes, four rebounds, six assists, a steal, a block, and a plus-19 in 31 minutes. Same night, he moved past Dominique Wilkins into 18th on the NBA's all-time scoring list. A 38-year-old climbing the career scoring list while making a 26-year-old MVP-caliber shot-creator look lost in space is still playing at the top of the league. It isn't close.
RTGCurry seemed almost sheepish about it afterward, saying he didn't expect the move to get that nasty and, more revealingly, "I don't know, I haven't been that open in a long time... I just love this game." It sounds like a man enjoying himself. For the rest of the league, it sounds like a problem that hasn't gone away.
The backdrop made it sweeter. Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg and Doncic had been needling each other since their opening-night meeting, and Lendeborg showed up dressed as Michael Myers for Halloween, so everyone tuned in expecting those two to trade blows. Instead the 38-year-old took over the storyline and the game. The kids can have the feud. Curry still runs the room.
