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Curry scores 40, Warriors rout Rockets in Game 3

May 24, 2015 - 5:31 AM Houston, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Stephen Curry outfought Dwight Howard for an offensive rebound and set another 3-point mark in a dazzling second quarter display.

The third was even better.

The NBA MVP quickly quelled a mini Houston Rockets charge by adding a few more triples to his record.

Curry nailed seven 3s and scored 40 points as the Golden State Warriors routed the Rockets 115-80 to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

"Remarkable, just a tremendous performance," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.

The sharp-shooting Curry, who broke his 2013 record for the most 3-pointers made in a regular season with 286, has now drained the most treys in a single postseason. Reggie Miller set the mark in 2000, but Curry surpassed him in nine fewer games. It took Miller 22 contests to get to 59 3s.

"The shooting is hard to describe because I don't think we've ever seen anybody shoot the ball the way Steph does off the dribble, off the catch," Kerr said.

Golden State can sweep the series and book its first trip to the NBA Finals since 1975 on Monday.

Curry's record-breaking 3 came at the 4:32 mark of the second. He took a few dribbles to his left and rose several feet from beyond the top of the arc to record his 60th trey of the postseason and give the Warriors a commanding 49-32 lead.

He finished the second with 15 points and added 19 more in the third, nailing all four of his 3-point tries.

Houston, which stormed back from a 19-point deficit and stunned the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 6 of their semifinal series, momentarily had its sights on another monumental comeback.

Curry, however, had other ideas.

Houston quickly trimmed a 25-point deficit to 18 with an 8-1 spurt to start the second half. The stoic Curry, though, knocked down a pair of triples and netted 10 points in a three-minute span to up the advantage back to 24 and the Rockets never threatened again.

Curry finished 12-of-19 from the field and 7-of-9 from beyond the arc. He has 64 3s in the playoffs.

Draymond Green had 17 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, Klay Thompson poured in 17 points and Andrew Bogut supplied 12 points and 12 boards for the top-seeded Warriors, who led by as many as 35.

James Harden, the runner-up to Curry in the MVP voting, poured in 17 points, but was just 3-of-16 from the floor for second-seeded Houston, which was held to 33.7 percent shooting.

"I was surprised we didn't come out with more juice," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said.

Howard posted 14 points and 14 boards in defeat.

"We just can't quit on each other," Howard said. "We've come too far. We've been through too many battles to just allow it to end like tonight

Bogut scored 10 of his points in the opening 12 minutes as the Warriors built a 30-18 lead, but they seized complete control of the contest late in the second.

Curry jump-started a 16-5 swing with his record-breaking 3 and scored Golden State's first eight points of the stretch. He had nine points in all during the run, which David Lee capped with a right-landed layup for a 62-37 halftime cushion.

"I felt like we didn't play our best the first two games, but played well enough," Kerr said. "I felt like we were ready to play our A game, which we did in the first half."

After the Rockets cut the deficit to 63-44, Curry nailed a 3 from the left corner to stop the momentum. Shortly thereafter, he drove the right wing and got his sweeping, high-arching left-handed scoop shot to drop high off the glass and over the outstretched arms of Howard.

His off-balanced corner 3 off an offensive rebound a bit later made it 74-50.

Golden State was up 92-61 after three quarters.

Game Notes

No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in an NBA playoff series. Of the 116 instances a team has gone up 3-0, just three of those series have gone to a Game 7 ... Curry, who also had seven assists, scored over 30 points in his fourth straight playoff game ... Golden State held a 60-39 rebounding advantage and outscored Houston 58-42 in the paint.