You can’t really define funky, you just know it when you see it. I’m not talking about the musty odoriferousness of the hipster sitting next to you on the subway right now who smells like he’s been wrasslin’ with an alligator. I’m pontificating on that unquantifiable quality of cool, magnetic, hypnotizing brilliance that only a true artist can conjure.
The funk drips from a Pete Rock beat, a DJ Premier production or the genius of Fela Kuti, as it does when Steph Curry is in the zone and starts reminding people of the utter insanity of his remarkable weaponry.
With all of the early season talk circulating around his new Golden State teammate Kevin Durant, and the Oscar Robertson-type numbers that LeBron James and Russell Westbrook are tossing up on a nightly basis, Steph made a definitive statement that the rumors of his demise – in the immediate aftermath Kyrie Irving’s clutch three-pointer that helped ruin the Warriors historic 73-win season and sealed a Game 7 Finals victory for the Cavs – have all been greatly exaggerated.
Steph dropped some diabolical Machine Gun Funk last night, splashing an NBA-record 13 three-pointers in Golden State’s 116-106 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
In his previous game, a shocking 117-97 loss to the upstart Lakers, Steph failed to hit from long range, ending his streak of 157 straight games of knocking down the deep ball. His response last night was strictly on some Biggie Smalls-type, “So you wanna be hardcore?”
Steph and the Warriors offense, outside of KD’s brilliance, is taking some time to formulate its personality with all of the team’s new personnel. Klay Thompson is not looking like himself, and Steph has seemed reluctant to assert himself at times.
But last night, probably hyped up off of his boy Andre Ward’s upcoming November 19th light heavyweight title bout against Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, Steph went into full-fledged knuckle mode, deciding to defend his MVP crown by saying, “(K)NOT TODAY!”, along with an emphatic, “Ya’ll Must a Forgot!”
Steph dropped 46 points on New Orleans, missing only four of his 17 three-point attempts. Last year, he led the league with 13 40-point explosions. He looks like he’s ready to get back to that level of dominance.
“I was hard on myself in practice the last two days. I had pretty good shooting sessions,” he told the media after the game. “I don’t overreact to games like that whether I go 0 for 10 or 2 for 12 or whatever it is. My process is the same, but I had another level of focus the last two days trying to get my rhythm back and see the ball go in.”
Klay Thompson scored 24 points, KD put up 22, Draymond Green had a double-double with 12 rebounds and 11 assists, and Anthony Davis had 33 points and 13 rebounds for New Orleans.
Durant is on a mission of his own, having scored 20 or more in 71 consecutive regular-season games, matching the GOAT, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (that’s right, I said it!) for the fifth-longest streak in NBA history.
But the night belonged to Chef Curry, who’s back in the kitchen cooking up some more mouth watery flavors to come.
The Funk Baby! My man mad now!
