In December, Stephen Curry slogged through his worst calendar month in years. In January, he resembled the perennial All-Star we're used to. In a small sample of three February games, he has played like the best player in the NBA.
After sitting out against Portland on Jan. 29, Curry unleashed his best three-game stretch of the season, averaging 34.3 PPG, 9.3 APG and 3.0 SPG while making 22 3-pointers. His worst game? That was 29 points, 11 assists and three steals in a win over the Clippers.
We agree with the NBA's weekly honors: Curry won this round. How exactly has he done it, and what has changed since earlier in the season?
When he's dialed in, Curry is so much more than a shooter. But don't kid yourself: When he's dialed in, it's the dazzling displays from downtown above all else that make us declare "Steph's back!" Even the most analytically inclined transform into kids on Christmas morning when Curry is pouring it from deep.
In his first 46 games of the season, Curry hit eight or more 3s just once, back in November when he set an NBA record with 13 against the Pelicans. He has now done that three times in his past four games. It's these games that grab our attention and make the basketball world collectively give Curry his due.
With that in mind, just how did Steph deliver his best week of the season?
Switching
There is perhaps no bigger mismatch in the league than when the Warriors are able to manufacture switches with bigs guarding Curry while he has the ball in his hands. Give him space, and you concede an open 3 to the best shooter in the world. Play up, and he blows by with ease to either finish at the rim or dish to an open shooter after drawing help.
Although Kevin Love and his Game 7 defense might beg to differ, it's a classic pick-your-poison dilemma in which big men more often than not get torched.
This was especially true last week. With a big switched onto him, Curry shot 7-for-8 from the field, did not turn it over a single time and averaged an incredible 2.3 points per play. The one time he did miss -- after getting Marreese Speights switched onto him -- it was a contested 27-footer that Kevon Looney easily rebounded before getting fouled by Austin Rivers on a putback.
Transition
Curry is uniquely dangerous in transition, ranking fourth in the NBA in transition points, behind only Russell Westbrook, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. But unlike those three, who rack up the vast majority of their transition points at the rim or at the free throw line after drawing fouls, Curry does most of his damage on transition 3s.
On the season, 60 percent of his made baskets in transition have come from beyond the 3-point line, including nine of his 13 transition buckets last week.
Curry went 9-for-13 on transition 3s last week, including a perfect 4-for-4 on those "contested, shooting this with a hand in my face, there's nothing you can do to stop it, I've got my swagger back" variety. In a week when the rest of his teammates combined to shoot 3-for-12 on transition 3s, Curry dropped one transition dagger after another.
Playmaking
Curry's biggest game as a distributor last week came against the Clippers, when he had 11 assists in a game in which Draymond Green did not play. But even if you look at only the games in which Green did play, it was Curry who led the team in assist opportunities.
In the three games last week, Curry's teammates shot 61 percent directly off his passes and 41 percent on all other shots. Of his team-high 46 assist opportunities, 22 were uncontested, on which they shot 68 percent including a perfect 10-for-10 inside the 3-point line.
Not only were his 28 assists the most he has had in any three-game stretch this season, but his 46 assist opportunities were also almost his most in any three-game stretch ever. Only three times last season did Curry generate more assist opportunities over three games. Curry is in a groove looking for his own offense, and he's also setting the table as well as he has in recent memory.
Syncing up with Durant
Above all else, perhaps the most important aspect of Curry's dominant week was the degree to which he synced up with Durant. When the Warriors added Durant, conventional wisdom suggested it would take time to strike a balance and fully integrate the four-time scoring champ. Although that will ultimately be judged by how they perform in May and June, the play of Curry and Durant together over the past three games should send shivers up the spines of any non-Warriors fan.
Durant was 7-for-11 off passes from Curry last week, including a perfect 7-for-7 inside the 3-point line. All but one of the makes came in the half court, a sign that when the game slows down, the Curry-to-Durant connection is alive and well. Of Durant's 14 uncontested field goal attempts over the past three games, more than half (8) came off passes from Curry. Sure, it's only three games, but considering that Durant came into the week averaging just more than one uncontested attempt per game off Curry looks, it's yet another sign that the two MVPs are learning to play off of each other.
In spite of his tremendous week, Curry finds himself just outside the top 10 of our season-long rankings. He sits in 11th place, with an average game score of 20.3. That makes it 11 players with an average game score of 20 this season, which would be tied for the most in a single season.