SAN FRANCISCO -- In an effort to inject some joy and juice into the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry celebrated his first made 3-point basket Thursday night by jumping and pumping his arms into the air as if he had thrown a touchdown.
By the time Curry drilled his final triple of the night, he jogged back to the Warriors' bench with his mouth agape and his arms waving up and down early in the fourth quarter. In a storied shooting career, the Warriors superstar had his most accurate night from behind the arc, going 8-for-8 and having 30 points, 10 assists and six rebounds to lift the Warriors to a 139-105 blowout over the Philadelphia 76ers at Chase Center.
Thursday's performance marked Curry's most 3-point makes without a miss in his career and was one shy of matching the NBA record for most 3's without a miss in a game, according to ESPN Research. Curry also is the first NBA player to go 8-for-8 from behind the arc and dish 10 assists in the same game.
"He deserves these nights," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "Everything he does for us and endures. It's so fun to see him do this. And our fans and our coaches, we're all spoiled watching him play night after night.
"But we need to cherish these nights. He's not going to be around forever, and he is one of the most beautiful basketball players who's ever lived and we're lucky to be watching him."
And Curry did all this with a sprained right thumb on his shooting hand. Curry was listed as questionable on the injury report, and he said his status was uncertain. He practiced the day before but tried to protect his shooting thumb.
"He barely practiced yesterday," teammate Draymond Green said. "Kind of walked around practice doing everything with his left hand. ... To see him come out and have the game that he had, kind of sums up Steph."
The Warriors desperately needed this kind of easy victory. Entering the game, Golden State had lost 13 of 17 games following a 12-3 start.
They came out with their best performance since November. Seven Warriors scored in double figures. They made 60.9% shots from the field, including 22-of-39 from behind the arc. The ball was also moving as Golden State recorded 43 assists on its 53 buckets.
The Warriors snapped a 22-game streak in which they failed to shoot 50% from the field. That is why Curry said he wanted to celebrate his first 3, which opened the game, to get his teammates going.
"Sometimes when you have a little injury or something that's random, it kind of forces you to focus a little bit," Curry said. "And just be free. [I was] just happy that I got to play. I was kind of unsure going into the day. I didn't get many attempts in the first half, but all four of them are really good in-rhythm shots and then from there you're kind of just flowing off of the joy of things going our way and having a day where Dennis [Schroder] hit three in the first half, JK [Jonathan Kuminga] came in and hit some big shots, Moses [Moody], everybody was kind of just feeling the rhythm of the night."
Curry even banked in a 3 off the glass and reacted as if he could not believe it went in.
His last two 3-pointers came on consecutive shots. The first was a 31-foot pull-up and the last was a 28-foot pull-up that gave the Warriors a 116-86 lead with 9:12 left.
When Curry was near the bench, he had fun and held his taped right thumb up while staring at his hot hand.
There have been too many nights that have ended in frustration for over the past month, leading Curry to assess that the Warriors' play has been "mid" following a 113-95 loss at home to Cleveland on Monday. But Golden State (17-16) has won two of its past three games.
"I know what I said last game and I meant it," Curry said of the team's play being average. "Because you are what your record says you are, and we have been playing below average basketball for a long time. Obviously I take accountability for a lot of that and at the end of the day you just want to play free and have fun.
"I celebrated my first 3 and just to try to infuse some joy into the game, so we have to try to maintain that even if shots don't fall for a certain stretch of a game, just stay locked in."