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This one looked different. Steph Curry didn’t erupt for 54 points at the Garden like he did in 2013.
He didn’t pour in 31, either, like he did last year.
But after Mikal Bridges’ suffocating defense limited him to just eight points in the first half, Curry accounted for 14 in the third quarter and two dagger 3-pointers in the fourth — and the result ended up being familiar.
Behind Curry’s 28 points and the Knicks offense going ice-cold in crunch time, the Warriors pulled away for a 114-102 victory on Tuesday.
The loss snapped the Knicks’ three-game winning streak, as Curry improved to 12-1 at the Garden in his career.
OG Anunoby collected 29 points for one of his better offensive games of the season and Jalen Brunson added 25, but forced to operate without Karl-Anthony Towns (personal reasons), the Knicks faltered and left for a five-game West Coast trip on a sour note.
“It doesn’t take much for him to get going,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said of Curry. “He never stops, so you can handle the first part, then there’s gonna be a second and third one. A couple of them were guarded extremely well and he made, and he has that ability. But we gotta find a way to win that game.”
For at least the opening 24 minutes, though, it appeared as if all the Knicks needed was Bridges on their roster to stop Curry, because with their offseason acquisition — the one who required five first-round picks and has been criticized recently during his seesawing season — swarming Curry, the Golden State superstar managed just eight points on 3-for-10 shooting.
Bridges made Curry work to create space, and that forced the Warriors to search for secondary scoring options.
Curry almost didn’t play against the Knicks, either, with a sore left ankle from their game Monday in Charlotte causing him to pop up as questionable on the injury report — and forcing his status to remain unclear until after warmups.
But as head coach Steve Kerr hinted at during his pregame news conference, it’s Curry.
It’s the Garden. It’s the heartbeat of basketball with one of the stars of the sport.
There was no way he’d miss it.
“You only get one time a year in here,” Curry said on the broadcast postgame.
And at the start of the third quarter, he started to show why.
He hit two free throws and made two consecutive baskets to give the Warriors an early jolt to erase any advantage the Knicks had.
Later in the frame, after trailing the play in transition, Curry waited behind the arc on the right wing — wide open, and without any help defense — and sank a 3, and then he put Golden State up seven with just over five minutes remaining in the fourth with another one.
“He’s able to get H๏τ at any given moment,” Brunson said. “We’ve just got to adjust and not give him the light of day. That’s easier said than done. You’ve got to make it tough for him.”
Still, the Knicks had a chance.
Anunoby and Brunson helped them keep pace, and they trailed by just one with 6:33 left after a free throw.
But the Knicks came up with plenty of empty possessions and committed miscues at the worst time.
After the Knicks turned the ball over following a Warriors missed possession, Curry waited in front of the Warriors bench.
He was wide open again.
And as the ball tracked toward the net, the Garden crowd — with plenty of Curry jerseys dotting the seats — waited in anticipation as he sank the sH๏τ, turned around and started to shrug his shoulders.
“Missed sH๏τs, slow getting back,” Thibodeau said. “Gotta play tougher than that down the stretch.”
