On May 27th, 2015, Stephen Curry picked up his only child, two-year-old Riley, and celebrated leading the Golden State Warriors to their first NBA Finals since 1975.

Three rings and two children later, Curry held baby Canon—who turns one in July—and celebrated leading the Golden State Warriors to their fifth consecutive NBA Finals, the first time a team has accomplished that feat since Bill Russell’s 1957 Boston Celtics.

Reaching the NBA Finals—and doing it again and again (and again and again)—requires a commitment to excellence and special performances from special players.

Curry did just that in the 2019 Western Conference Finals.

He finished the series—a four game sweep of the Portland Trailblazers—averaging 36.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 7.3 assists on 47 percent shooting from the field and 43 percent from three.

Those numbers, though remarkable, still don’t tell the full story of his brilliance.

The Warriors entered the series shorthanded—missing DeMarcus Cousins and Kevin Durant, who was leading the playoffs in scoring before suffering a calf strain against the Houston Rockets—and they finished it with even less bodies as Andre Iguodala missed Game 4 with a sore Achilles.

Though far from being by himself—the Warriors don’t play that way—he had to step up and account for the production from his injured teammates. He needed to be amazing.

He was even better than amazing.

Curry’s 2019 Western Conference Finals was one of the greatest individual Conference Finals performances in league history; a dazzling display of postseason dominance in a way that only he could achieve.

Curry surpassed Shaquille O’Neal’s 2002 NBA Finals mark of most points in a four-game sweep, scoring 146 points against the Blazers.

NBA Analyst Tommy Beer noted that Curry joined 1993 Michael Jordan as only the second player in the last 35 years to have four consecutive postseason games of more than 35 points and 5 rebounds.

His series, as a whole, was phenomenal so it was only fitting that he closed it out in remarkable fashion, totaling 37 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists while playing the entire second half and overtime period while not committing a foul the entire game.

Per Basketball Reference, Curry’s Game Score in Game 4—a metric that combines 12 different aspects of the box score—was the best in a Conference Finals or Finals clincher since Charles Barkley in the 1993 Western Conference Finals.

Following a few tough games earlier in the postseason, critics exaggerated his poor play and claimed that it was indicative of a career-long trend of playoff struggles.

Curry’s Game 4 was just the latest—and, perhaps, greatest—addition to an impressive Conference Finals resumé.

Including the final game of the series against Portland, Curry is averaging 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists in five Western Conference Finals closeout games.

His career averages in the penultimate postseason series are equally as gaudy: 29.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists in 27 Conference Finals games. Those numbers stack up well when compared to other greats (though they, admittedly, had much larger sample sizes thus far).

Kobe Bryant averaged 26.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in 45 games. Michael Jordan averaged 31.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in 45 games. LeBron James is averaging 29.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 6.8 assists in 59 games.

Imagine if Curry didn’t disappear in the postseason every year, right?

Essentially, we’re watching one of the all-time greats go to work and he’s doing it in historic fashion.

The WCF against the Blazers was another step towards the pantheon of greats that so many have refused to welcome him into, but the job isn’t finished.

For Curry, winning is all that matters and, while these records and mind-boggling statlines certainly are nice, the real prize is the jewelry he gets if he wins four more games.

Steph Curry is going to look to build momentum from one of the most dominant individual performances in a series sweep and help the Golden State Warriors three-peat.