Kevin Durant and Steve Kerr have witnessed Steph Curry's greatness up close, but this was different.
As his former NBA teammate and his current coach, respectively, Durant and Kerr have been blown away by Curry's showcases with the Warriors for years. But Curry's heroics in Team USA's 95-91 semifinal win over Serbia on Thursday in the 2024 Paris Olympics was extra special.
"It was special to be a part of," Durant told reporters postgame. "Steph Curry, we talked about each game, somebody had to step up. It might be your night. And he came and had the best night out of anybody the whole tournament.
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"[It was] so incredible to watch him knock down shots to keep us afloat. [LeBron James] played incredible. Joel [Embiid] was insane tonight. It was incredible. I just love what everybody did.
"I think this game is going to go down as one of the most memorable games."
Curry, playing in his first Olympics, had struggled to find a rhythm through the first four games this summer. But everyone, including James, knew a Curry Flurry was bound to happen.
And it did, just when Team USA needed it most.
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Curry scored 36 points and was a plus-20 in 33 minutes of the nailbiting win. He took 19 shots and made 12, and added eight rebounds.
The 3-point king scored the first two points 11 seconds into the game. He finished with 17 points and five 3-pointers after the first quarter.
Through Team USA's first four Olympic games, he had made just five 3s.
"Everyone's trying to find their rhythm within the group," Durant said. "We subbing five at a time, some guys are playing roles they haven't played before. It could be any guy that had that moment. So he knocked down that first shot and got going in the first quarter. He had 17 of our first 20 points. Guys were looking for him. His energy was high. He was shooting the ball and turning around. It was just a regular Steph game. And I think he was searching for that type of game the whole Olympics.
"And to have it right here, especially when we needed it, it was special to see."
Team USA trailed by as many as 17 points, but with a gold medal at stake and time winding down, Durant revealed what was said during a timeout huddle to help put the Americans back on track.
"We just wanted to get it to single digits by seven minutes," Durant said. "That's all we were talking about. Get it to five or seven with seven minutes to go. We got it to five, and defensively, we turned it up even more. We got stops when we needed to. We made them miss."
Durant and Curry teaming up in the Bay resulted in three consecutive NBA Finals appearances and two championships. NBA fans have dreamt about a James-Curry pairing for years, but a James-Curry-Durant trifecta on Team USA will suffice for now -- and they're enjoying it just as much.
"It's a special group of guys," Durant said. "Time is winding down, we got one more game. It's kind of bittersweet because we are playing in the gold medal game with the opportunity to get another gold, but we're not going to be together once we finish here. It was a joy to be in the locker room with these guys and on the bus just talking life with these guys and then hooping on the floor with them.
"It's the best team I've ever been a part of, and I want to finish it off with a gold."
Kerr has seen it all from Curry in their 10 NBA seasons together. But when asked where Thursday's performance ranks among Curry's long list of impressive showings, Kerr couldn't do it.
"It's impossible to rank Steph's performances because there have been so many of them," Kerr said. "So many big games. But it's different playing for USA Basketball than it is playing for your NBA team. You're literally playing for your country, so it didn't surprise me at all that Steph had the game that he did. He always comes up big when he's needed the most.
"But it was the competitive spirit of the whole group that really stood out to me."
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