Saturday night's heavyweight bout between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics was billed as a possible 2018 NBA Finals preview.
What it became, though, was an exhibition of roundball magic orchestrated by oft-dueling All-Star lead guards Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving.
The three-time championship-round combatants simultaneously reached the peak of their crafts, overloading the stat sheet from the Warriors' 109-105 victory with wild volume and otherworldly efficiency. Curry pumped in a season-high 49 points, human-torching his way to 16-of-24 shooting and an 8-of-13 showing from distance. Irving countered with 37 on a hyper-tidy 13-of-18 (5-of-6 outside).