Wild stat shows gravity of Steph's impact on the floor

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It's no secret that when Steph Curry is on the court for the Warriors, the team is better.

That much was clear in Golden State's 127-120 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night, where yet another dagger three from Curry helped seal the Warriors' first road win of the 2022-23 NBA season.

But just how much better are they when the four-time NBA champion is in the game? That success is made evident by a glaring stat.

The plus/minus rating for a player or team offers a clever way to measure on-court success, taking note of not only scoring but also the intangibles. In short, the stat measures a team's point differential when a player is on the floor compared with when he's not.

So, when Curry is in the game for Golden State, the team has outscored its opponents by 103 points. When Curry is on the bench, the Warriors have been outscored by 99 points.

Talk about having an impact.

And although the plus/minus stat can bounce around a lot from game to game for a player, it's a definitive way of pinpointing the impact that their stellar defense, unselfish offense and other on-court factors can have.

That being said, the measurement can serve as a valuable evaluation tool for how a player performed in a single game and how they've performed across a longer stretch.

To go along with his 33 points and 15 assists on Sunday night, Curry posted a plus/minus rating of plus-22. The reigning NBA Finals MVP is averaging a plus/minus rating of plus-6.44 in the 16 games he has played this season.

Curry has played arguably the best basketball of life so far this season, though the defending NBA champion Warriors sit at No. 11 in the Western Conference standings with an 8-9 record.

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And across his career, which is now in Year 14, Curry's plus/minus rating is plus-5,524.

With a stat like that, the Warriors' dynasty during Curry's tenure certainly comes as no surprise.

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