Just How Crazy Is Stephen Curry's Record for Most Three-Pointers Made in a Single Postseason?
Stephen Curry might already be the best shooter in NBA history.
There are cases to be made for Ray Allen and Reggie Miller, fine, but Curry is completely revolutionizing the three-point shot as a weapon. He has already broken many major shooting records in just his sixth season and still at the ripe young age of 27.
This year, he set the record for the most three-pointers made in a single season with 286, breaking his own record from 2012-13. In fact, Curry's last three seasons all sit in the top-5 all-time:
| Player | Year | GP | 3PM | 3P/G | 3P% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Curry | 2014-15 | 80 | 286 | 3.6 | 44.3% |
| 2 | Stephen Curry | 2012-13 | 78 | 272 | 3.5 | 45.3% |
| 3 | Ray Allen | 2005-06 | 78 | 269 | 3.4 | 41.2% |
| 4 | Dennis Scott | 1995-96 | 82 | 267 | 3.3 | 42.5% |
| 5 | Stephen Curry | 2013-14 | 78 | 261 | 3.3 | 42.4% |
Not only is Steph taking over the all-time leaderboard, but he's doing it with more volume and at a better rate of efficiency than his predecessors (and at a younger age with room to grow to boot).
Curry deservingly won this season's MVP award and is now only one win away from being an NBA champion. As if those accolades and a regular season three-point record weren't enough, he's in the midst of setting the bar for three-pointers made in a single postseason incredibly high as well.
During the 2000 NBA Playoffs, Reggie Miller set the previous record for triples made in a single postseason with 58 over 22 games. Curry managed to break that in only 13 contests, back during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets on May 23rd. In that game -- which now feels like it happened months ago -- Curry made seven threes, putting his total for this playoff run up to 64 at the time.
Now, sitting at a staggering 95 made threes, Curry has set the new gold standard for postseason shooting performances:
| Player | Year | GP | 3PM | 3P/G | 3P% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Curry | 2015 | 20 | 95 | 4.8 | 43.0% |
| 2 | Reggie Miller | 2000 | 22 | 58 | 2.6 | 39.5% |
| 3 | Ray Allen | 2001 | 18 | 57 | 3.2 | 47.9% |
| 4 | Ray Allen | 2010 | 24 | 56 | 2.3 | 38.6% |
| 5 | Dennis Scott | 1995 | 21 | 56 | 2.7 | 37.1% |
| 6 | Klay Thompson | 2015 | 20 | 56 | 2.8 | 39.2% |
Worth mentioning: props to Curry's teammate Klay Thompson for only being three triples away from breaking Reggie's original record himself.
Considering Curry has averaged nearly five threes per game this postseason (and 5.7 in three series closeout games), there's a pretty good chance that he eclipses 100 in the one to two games that remain. For an idea of just how crazy that is and for some historical context, here are some facts about three-point shooting over NBA postseason history:
1) The three-point line was introduced in the NBA in 1979-80. That postseason, every playoff team combined to hit a total of 90 three-pointers. That's fewer than Stephen Curry has hit already this postseason.
2) It wasn't until 1984 that all the teams in the postseason combined to make over 100 three-pointers. In other words, Curry has made more triples in this year's playoffs than every team combined in each of the 1980 (90), 1981 (50), 1982 (51), and 1983 (58) postseasons. What's more, he has a legitimate shot at making more this year than every team did in the 1981 and 1982 postseasons combined (101).
3) The first year an individual team hit at least 100 threes in a single playoff run was in 1993, when the Phoenix Suns hit exactly 100 on their way to losing in the Finals to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. The Suns hit 4.2 triples per game during that run, while Steph has hit 4.8 per contest this year by himself.
4) Curry has already hit more three-pointers this postseason (95 made, 4.8 per contest) than the world champion Chicago Bulls in 1998 (88 made, 4.2 per contest) and the San Antonio Spurs in 1999 (70 made, 4.1 per contest). If Curry hits just three more from long range, he'll also have made more triples during this postseason than the most recent championship team to hit under 100, the 2004 Detroit Pistons (97 made, 4.2 per contest). That was only 11 years ago!
Stephen Curry has already become a more prolific shooter than a championship team was a mere decade ago and more than the entire league was 30 years ago. As he puts his name next to just about every important shooting record in the NBA history books, questions of whether or not he's the best shooter of all time are starting to grow quiet.
If he can show that he can win an MVP award and maybe (probably) a title with a game based largely around the perimeter, he could very well revolutionize the game of basketball and how future generations value the three-point shot.
