When greatness isn't enough
Stephen Curry just delivered one of the most absurd shooting performances in NBA history, and it didn't matter. He scored 48 points on 16-for-26 shooting, hitting 12 three-pointers on 19 attempts, and the Warriors still lost to the Portland Trail Blazers. Not a playoff contender. Not a championship-caliber team. Portland. A franchise actively trying to figure out its future while Curry was out there playing like it was 2016.
This wasn't just a good game—it was historically elite. Curry became the player over 30 with the most 40-point games in NBA history with 45, surpassing Michael Jordan. He also tied the all-time NBA record for games with 12 made three-pointers, matching a mark held by literally nobody else on the planet five times over. That sentence shouldn't be possible, yet here we are, watching Curry rewrite basketball logic while his team loses anyway.
The supporting cast that doesn't support
Nobody else on the Warriors scored more than 17 points. Not Jimmy Butler. Not anyone. Curry put up 48 on ridiculous efficiency, and the rest of Golden State combined couldn't generate enough offense to overcome Shaedon Sharpe and Jerami Grant both dropping 35. That's not a supporting cast—that's basketball purgatory, where one player does everything right and it's still not enough because the infrastructure around him has collapsed.
Butler's integration into this offense has been a disaster. He's being kept away from creation responsibilities, relegated to a role that doesn't maximize his strengths or complement Curry's gravity. The roster construction that worked late last season—when Golden State surprised the league with genuine dominance—has evaporated. Whatever chemistry existed then is gone now, replaced by a group that looks completely lost whenever Curry sits.
The brutal reality of diminishing windows
This game is why the "Curry doesn't need more help" argument died years ago. Yes, he's still capable of nuclear performances that bend defenses into impossible decisions. But one player, no matter how transcendent, can't carry a flawed roster to a championship. And that's what Golden State has become—a flawed roster anchored by the greatest shooter ever, watching his remaining elite years evaporate while the front office refuses to make the aggressive move necessary to capitalize on this window.
The end-of-game execution was sloppy, which speaks to larger issues. Golden State doesn't have the secondary playmaking or shot creation to close games when Curry gets face-guarded or doubled aggressively. They don't have the defensive versatility to contain explosive scorers like Sharpe when things tighten up. And they don't have the depth to survive mistakes or cold stretches from role players. Those are fatal flaws against good teams, and they're showing up even against rebuilding squads like Portland.
— NBA (@NBA) December 15, 2025
When historic isn't the story
Curry's stat line should dominate every conversation: 48 points, 12 threes, 16-for-26 shooting. That's video game efficiency combined with video game volume. But the actual story is how the Warriors wasted it. How a performance that would've been enough to beat 90% of NBA teams wasn't enough tonight because Golden State's roster construction is fundamentally broken.
The frustration Curry must feel right now is unimaginable. He's 36 years old, still performing at an MVP-caliber level, and his front office keeps trotting out rosters that can't capitalize on it. He's not asking for perfection—he's asking for competence. He's asking for a second reliable scoring option who can create offense when defenses sell out to stop him. He's asking for defensive players who don't turn every possession into a crisis when he's not personally bailing them out.
The trade that needs to happen but probably won't
Golden State needs to make a significant move, and they needed to make it yesterday. Not a marginal upgrade. Not another veteran minimum signing. A real trade that brings back a legitimate co-star who can take pressure off Curry and actually execute in crunch time. The Warriors are acting like they have three more years to figure this out when the reality is they might have one season left where Curry is still this good.
Butler was supposed to be part of the solution, but his usage has been mismanaged to the point where he's just another body on the floor instead of the playmaking, defensive force he was in Miami. That's a coaching and system failure as much as a roster issue. But even fixing Butler's role doesn't solve the broader problem: this team isn't deep enough, isn't talented enough, and isn't structured properly to win a championship.
The window everyone pretends isn't closing
Curry just went for 48 and 12 threes, and the dominant narrative will be "what an incredible performance." But the real narrative should be: how many more of these does Curry have left, and how many will the Warriors waste before they accept that half-measures won't cut it? Every game like this where Golden State loses is another reminder that time is running out, and the front office's reluctance to go all-in is costing them the final years of one of the greatest careers in basketball history.
Portland shouldn't beat you when Curry plays like this. But they did, because the rest of the roster couldn't rise to the moment. And unless something changes drastically, this won't be the last time we watch Curry deliver a masterpiece that gets buried under a preventable loss.