Stephen Curry named first-ever Western Conference Finals MVP

On Thursday night, Stephen Curry willed his Golden State Warriors to the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the Western Conference Finals for his performances.

Curry led the Warriors to a win over the young and upcoming Dallas Mavericks in five games, averaging 23.8 points, 7.4 assists, and 6.6 rebounds in the series. His +45 plus/minus stat further accentuated his value for Golden State in the Conference Finals showdown.

Stephen Curry named first-ever Western Conference Finals MVP

His most noteworthy performance came in Game 2, where he poured in 32 points with six threes and eight rebounds.

Even when Curry wasn’t shooting the ball well, he facilitated for the Warriors by creating open shots for his teammates. In Games 4 and 5, where he had his two worst shooting nights from the field, he had eight and nine assists, respectively.

Outside of the stat sheet, Curry had a tremendous impact on the defensive side of the basketball, parallel with the improvement that he has shown over the course of the 2021-22 season.

He played with active hands as he made both shots and passes difficult for the Mavericks and demonstrated lateral quickness as he stayed in front of Dallas’ perimeter players throughout the series.

This postseason marks the inaugural naming of the Western Conference Finals MVP, whose trophy is named after NBA Hall-of-Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson for the battles that he had for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s with the Boston Celtics. Relatively, the Eastern Conference Finals MVP award is named after Larry Bird of the Celtics.

The Warriors now look forward to the NBA Finals, where they will have home-court advantage against the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals series between the Celtics and the Miami Heat.