Stephen Curry was on his way to two days of online debate about what was wrong with his game. Curry, the two-time winner of the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award, looked tentative and lost. His shots were not falling, he was being exposed badly on defense, and his team was winning in spite of him rather than because of him.
Then came a transcendent third quarter on Sunday in which Curry looked positively Steph Curry-like. He made all seven of his shots, two of which were long 3-pointers, and finished the quarter with a team-high 18 points, matching his highest point total in the first two games of the Western Conference finals in a single period.