Stephen Curry

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry says the team has to "bring an edge" after blowing a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks.

"We've got to bring an edge," Curry told reporters. "Sustain that over 48 minutes, and each game we'll have an opportunity to do that—to turn it into a positive and try to build momentum, but it's not going to happen on its own just because Coach says it or because we want it to. We've got to do it."

Golden State led 93-74 with 9:59 remaining before being outscored 33-8 the rest of the way as the Mavericks locked in on both ends of the floor.

Luka Doncic finished with 34 points, and Spencer Dinwiddie added 24 off the bench to lead the Mavs' comeback. Curry finished with 27 points and 10 assists but made just two of his eight shots in the fourth.

"We did not maintain our grit down the stretch," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We just let our momentum get away from us. ... We can't just say, 'Oh well, when Draymond [Green] and Andre [Iguodala] get back, we will be better.' It doesn't matter who's out there. We've got to get better executing under pressure and maintaining competence."

The Warriors have dropped five of their last seven games and are sorely missing Green's presence on both ends of the floor. Curry has been tasked with shouldering a significant offensive load with the team lacking Green's playmaking presence, and the team's defense has been inconsistent at best with Green not there to act as a fulcrum.

That said, both Curry and Kerr pointed to a seeming lack of mental wherewithal—an area where Green thrives when he's on the floor. No timetable has been set for Green's return from his back injury, but his value has never been clearer than it was Sunday.

The 2022 NBA All-Star Game had such a perfect ending it might as well have been scripted. 

LeBron James knocked down a one-legged fadeaway jumper to lead Team LeBron to a 163-160 win over Team Durant in Cleveland—only after fellow Akron native, Stephen Curry, led the way with a 50-point performance.

"This guy is from a different planet," James said of Curry, who won game MVP honors. "He literally has an automatic sniper connected to his arm, and when he lets it go, not only himself but everybody on the floor, in the stands, on TV, on their phones, whatever you're watching on, you think it's going in every time."

Curry shattered Paul George's previous record of nine threes in an All-Star Game, knocking down a jaw-dropping 16—many of them from absurdly long distances. His 50 points are the second-most in All-Star history, behind the 52-point effort of Anthony Davis in 2017.

James finished with 24 points, six rebounds and eight assists as the Cleveland crowd cheered him on with a voraciousness he has not heard all season in Los Angeles amid the Lakers' struggles.

"I was chasing that extra two or three points. I think DeMar [DeRozan] hit a big shot, and then [James] came out and hit the game-winner," Curry told reporters. "It was kind of a perfect ending. Obviously, I got the MVP; I played well the whole night. He hit the game-winner. All the history of our series and the Akron ties, and all that kind of going into how the night went, so it was pretty—can't really draw it up any other way."

Stephen Curry put on a show during Sunday's NBA All-Star Game and took home the Kobe Bryant Trophy as the MVP.

"This is definitely special," Curry said of winning the trophy named after the all-time Los Angeles Lakers great. He added: "Everything on this trophy means something in terms of his life and what he represented, accomplishments on the court."

Curry also talked about his accomplishments on the court following Team LeBron's 163-160 victory over Team Durant:

The NBA redesigned the All-Star Game MVP trophy to honor Bryant with an eight-sided base and 24 stars for the two jersey numbers he wore. The four levels recognize how many All-Star MVPs he won:

Curry won the award with 50 points and 16 three-pointers in a dazzling performance.

Yet LeBron James hit the game-winning shot in the Elam Ending to give his team the victory.        

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry had a historic performance in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland with 16 made threes in a win, and he said having some of the game's best in attendance helped bring out a "different energy" during the competition.

Curry had this to say on the game's atmosphere during the NBA on TNT postgame show (via NBA TV) after Team LeBron won a 163-160 nail-biter over Team Durant:

It's like when you go to the gym and you play with the best of the best, like it brings the best out of you. So if you are around and talking to the best of the best and the history of the game, it brings ... a different energy out of you, for sure.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James also described the moment of sharing the stage with some of the league's GOATs:

The NBA honored some of the league's all-time greats at this weekend's All-Star Game to celebrate the 75th anniversary. The league named the 75th Anniversary Team earlier this season, and many members were in attendance for Sunday's ceremony, including Allen Iverson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki and John Stockton.

Curry and James were among those 75 players.

Curry, an eight-time All-Star, recently passed Ray Allen for the most made threes of all time and is once again in the midst of a fantastic season, averaging 25.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists while shooting 42.7 percent from the floor and 37.9 percent from deep in 54 games.

He is also a three-time NBA champion, two-time scoring leader and two-time MVP. The Ohio native added to his trophy case Sunday too, winning the Kobe Bryant Trophy as the MVP of the All-Star Game.

Curry finished with a game-high 50 points in 36 minutes. He made 17 of 30 shots from the floor and set an All-Star Game record of 16 three-pointers on 27 attempts, crushing Paul George's previous record of nine from 2016.

With the All-Star festivities over, Curry will look to lead the Warriors back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019 and add yet another title to his resume.

The Team LeBron dynasty continues.

Team LeBron defeated Team Durant 163-160 in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. LeBron James is now 5-0 as a captain in the All-Star Game since the format changed to two captains selecting their teams from a player pool.

The King can thank Stephen Curry for the latest victory, as the Golden State Warriors guard put on an absolute show on the way to 50 points behind 16 made three-pointers for the game's MVP.

Still, it was LeBron who fittingly hit the game-winning shot.

James' team defeated Kevin Durant's squad last year as well. The King also has two victories over Giannis Antetokounmpo and one win over Curry in previous editions of the All-Star Game when the Milwaukee Bucks and Warriors stars were captains.

Notable Player Stats

• Stephen Curry, Team LeBron: 50 PTS, 5 REB, 2 AST, 2 BLK, 16-of-27 3PT
• Giannis Antetokounmpo, Team LeBron: 30 PTS, 12 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL
• LeBron James, Team LeBron: 24 PTS, 8 AST, 6 REB, 3 STL
• Joel Embiid, Team Durant: 36 PTS, 10 REB, 4 AST
• Devin Booker, Team Durant: 20 PTS, 5 REB, 4 STL, 2 AST

The teams were playing for more than just bragging rights with Team LeBron suiting up for the Kent State I Promise Scholars Program and Team Durant playing for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

Each of the first three quarters started with a 0-0 score, and the winner of that quarter earned $100,000 for its organization. The winning team also earned an additional $150,000 on top of the $150,000 that went to each organization at the start of the game.

The fourth quarter was different, though, with the game clock turned off and a final target score of 24 points more than the leading team's cumulative score to honor Kobe Bryant. Whichever team reached the target score was the game-winner.

LeBron's side earned the first $100,000 with a 47-45 victory in the first quarter behind a combination of Curry three-pointers, Giannis dunks, Nikola Jokic assists and Luka Doncic triples.

It was enough to outlast Joel Embiid pouring in the points, a 360 dunk from Zach LaVine, a monster jam from Ja Morant and Devin Booker getting into the lane for Team Durant.

The pressure was on Team Durant to win for charity in the second quarter, and that task got all the more difficult when Curry caught fire. He was draining shots from well beyond the arc and even drilled four in a row at one point on his way to six triples in the quarter alone and a record eight three-pointers in the half.

Darius Garland also got hot in front of the home fans, but Team Durant responded with Booker going to work, Morant flying through the air, LaMelo Ball doing a little bit of everything, Trae Young dishing out assists and Embiid maintaining the momentum on the way to a 49-46 second-quarter win.

From there, the long NBA 75th Anniversary Team celebration at halftime did nothing to cool off Curry.

The Warriors star went into takeover mode in the third quarter with rainbow three after rainbow three. He even attempted a half-court shot as the ultimate heat check after setting the NBA record for triples in a single All-Star Game.

Yet Embiid carried Team Durant for extended stretches during the third quarter to weather the Curry storm. Throw in some late plays from Ball, and Team Durant earned a tie and split the charity money in the quarter even with Curry and Antetokounmpo dominating.

A tie also meant Team Durant was ahead by a single point heading to the fourth quarter and the Elam Ending with the target score of 163. The intensity was immediately dialed up as Curry continued to launch from deep, Antetokounmpo swatted Bucks teammate Khris Middleton and Embiid started to enforce his will on the low blocks.

Curry actually went cold for a stretch, but DeMar DeRozan hit a mid-range jumper to pull within two points of the target score.

From there, LaVine dunked and hit a three to make it 161-160, but James did what he's done so many times in Cleveland and hit the biggest shot of the game to win it.