Stephen Curry on track for NBA Finals MVP – if Warriors win

Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole are involved in halfcourt-shooting competition. At each practice and shootaround, the Warriors teammates try their luck from midcourt. All that work paid off in Game 2 of the NBA Finals with Poole sinking a half-court buzzer-beater to end the third quarter.

“If you make one during the game, we count it,” Curry said. “So he took the lead tonight.”

Always a supportive teammate, Curry had a giant smile wash over his face when celebrating Poole’s basket. That shot allowed Curry to let his guard down, relax and begin preparing for his next attempt in their shooting competition – in practice this week.

Curry sat the entire fourth quarter as Golden State cruised to victory, but he still scored a game-high 29 points. Though not as scorching as early Game 1, he continues to carry a huge offensive load. Curry has scored 63 points in 70 minutes this series – the highest scoring rate for rotation regular in the first two games of an NBA Finals in decades.

Here are the players with the most points per minute in first two games of NBA Finals (minimum: 30 minutes)

Everyone to begin an NBA Finals scoring as potently as Curry since the NBA introduced Finals MVP – Jerry West in 1969, Shaquille O’Neal in 2002 and 2000, Michael Jordan in 1992 and 1991 – has won the award.

Of course, Curry has infamously never won Finals MVP. At times in 2015 and 2018, Curry looked poised to win the award. But he let it slip away.

If a Warrior were going to win Finals MVP in 2015 (when LeBron had the best series in a loss), it should have been Curry. But Andre Iguodala won. So, Finals MVP continues to loom as a missing line on Curry’s distinguished resumé.

Not entirely fairly. But not entirely unfairly, either. For a player of