They did achieve this, but Hansen cut back hard toward the basket.
At that point the Warriors’ stretched-out defense couldn’t get back in time.
As Hansen reached out, Irving also sent a long alley-oop pass.
The pass was slightly overthrown, but Hansen leapt and pulled the ball back in mid-air, then performed maximum arc crescent-moon alley-oop slam.
The moment the ball was slammed into the hoop, even the Oracle Arena erupted in a chorus of amazement.
As is well known, the prerequisite for a historic dunk is an imperfect pass.
The Warriors players were all stunned, especially Curry, who kept looking up at the LED screen replay, the envy in his eyes impossible to hide.
Walton didn’t call a timeout, because Hansen was on fire from the outside, and he could accept this kind of scoring over letting him continue to shoot threes.
Interestingly, right after the Warriors advanced quickly to the frontcourt, Malone also waved his hand to spread out the Cavaliers’ defense.
Curry had already sunk 4 three-pointers this quarter, and had totaled 7 for the night; if they kept guarding him like that, he was heading for an NBA record.
The Warriors had the ball in Green’s hands.
Cole placed even more emphasis on Curry than Jackson, and Walton focused more on Green than Cole, with Green holding a pretty high possession rate on this Warriors team.
It was then, Curry did just as Hansen had, using a cutback to penetrate deep into the Knight’s territory.
Green’s pass was much more comfortable than Irving’s, a ground pass that threaded through the crowd.
Curry caught the ball and sprinted toward the basket. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⚫𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⚫𝘯𝘦𝘵
Then, he did something unexpected.
Instead of laying it up quickly as he had before, he jumped with the ball held high in both hands, and then in mid-air, he slammed the ball down hard with his right hand into the hoop!
Although the jump was a little low and the visual impact average, the key was that he dunked it!
In terms of style, Curry and Nash are very similar, but in terms of desire to dunk, the two are quite different.
The arena exploded in the instant.
After landing from the dunk, Curry was immensely excited, arching his body and roaring more fiercely than he would have after any game-winning three.
Hansen had watched Curry cut back because he was too far away to cover on defense, and he watched him jump and dunk.
He had thought Curry might miss the dunk, but he made it.
Indeed, a shooter who can’t dunk is not a good shooter; the Golden State Raven has not gained his name in vain.①
However, from the choices of Hansen and Curry, it was clear they were both high basketball IQ players. They did not rely solely on their hot hands to force shots over defenders but used the shooting space created by their hot shooting to keep attacking the opponent’s paint.
Their shootout had now become a direct assault on the dragon’s lair.
Well, temporarily so.
Due to the intense situation, both Hansen and Curry played the entire quarter.
After both attacked the paint consecutively, the defenses of both teams were gradually pulled back.
As time approached the end of the quarter and both teams brought on substitutions, lowering the quality of defense, both players fired from outside again.
Curry scored another, Hansen hit two more, and both had 5 three-pointers in the quarter.
With 5 seconds left before the end of the quarter, Hansen made a wide crossover move at the perimeter to shake off Iguodala, then fired from half a meter beyond the 45° three-point line.
At that moment, the score on the court was 94 to 96, the Cavaliers trailed by only 2 points; if this shot went in, they would lead going into the final quarter.
The fans on site also tensed up, though the difference between leading and trailing wasn’t significant in points, it was huge psychologically.
Hansen’s hands were not soft; he decisively sunk his sixth three-pointer of the quarter!
"What can I say now?"
After that three-pointer, O’Neal held the mic with a wry smile.
Jordan was once doubted for his three-point shooting, but he answered definitively with six threes in a half during the finals, silencing all criticism.
Now Hansen wasn’t under the same scrutiny, but with six threes in a quarter!
This wasn’t just a surpassing; it was a dimensional assault!
However, just when everyone thought the shootout had ended in Hansen’s victory, another unbelievable event unfolded on the court.
Green quickly inbounded from the backcourt, Curry dribbled forward and pushed to the front.
At this point, the Cavaliers were slow on transition due to substitutions and fatigue, then Curry, without waiting for time to run down, pulled up sharply for a three-point quick shot a meter from the sideline.
JR in front of Curry couldn’t react in time to block.
After the basketball traced a low arc, it struck like a cannon-launched grenade, blasting directly into the hoop!
Curry also made his sixth three-pointer of the quarter!
In the end, the two ended up in a draw.
Or rather, the quarter was Curry’s win.
Because the Warriors entered the final quarter with a 2-point lead.
As the third quarter ended, the LED scoreboard also posted the data for Hansen and Curry for the third quarter.
Curry had scored 28 points, while Hansen had a whopping 30 points, both breaking their own records for single-quarter scoring.
"If this performance continues for four quarters, we’ll see two 100-point games," Barkley quipped from the commentary booth.
points only requires 25 points per quarter, which is quite reasonable.
However, the reality was that both Hansen and Curry had scored over 40+ by the end of the third quarter; more likely tonight, both were headed for 50+.