By Morris Phillips

Stephen Curry making trick shots in warmups. Steph piling up buckets during the game. Demoralized opponents trudging back down the floor, heads bowed. Teammates and fans roaring their approval and/or shaking their heads in disbelief.

That stuff’s nothing new. But, based on various observers at Oracle on Wednesday, it never gets old.

“He’s a special player, special scorer, special shooter and he’s taking 35-foot shots.” Wizards coach Scott Brooks. “It’s hard to double-team a guy that far out and he makes them. He’s make them like they are layups.”

The Warriors leaped to a 80-71 lead in a defense-optional first half prompted by Washington being without injured centers Dwight Howard and Ian Mahimi, and opting to go small, run and shoot.

With Curry cooking from the start, the Wizards approach played right into Golden State’s hands.

Curry scored 23 of his 51 points in the first quarter without a 3-point miss. He would go on to make 11 from distance in the game, the tenth time he’s made at least 10 threes in a game.

The 23-point opening quarter? That’s the 20th time Curry accomplished that feat in his career.

“Some of the shooting was just mind-boggling,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Nobody’s ever done what he’s doing, pulling up from I don’t know, 32s.”

The teams combined for 151 points in the first with the Wizards gaining traction with Curry on the bench to start the second quarter. Led by Bradley Beal (23 points) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (17 points) Washington matched buckets for stretches. But the fast pace and rapid scoring simply meant this for the Wizards: they would suffer the oddity of placing six players in double figures only to lose by 22.

Another curious juxtaposition of the numbers saw Kevin Durant (30 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) and Klay Thompson combine for 49 points on 21 of 35 shooting, but be rendered footnotes. How’s that? Durant and Thompson managed just one, crowd-pleasing, made three each.

The Warriors improved to 4-1 while the Wizards fell to 1-3. Curry has scored at least 30 in four of the five contests, and doing so on Monday and Wednesday in only the first three quarters, as he sat through both fourth quarters with the outcome no longer in doubt. Curry, averaging 34.6 ppg, trails only Detroit’s Blake Griffin (36.4) for the NBA scoring lead.

“It’s just one of those nights you just have so much fun playing the game,” Curry said.

51 POINTS AT THE COLISEUM ARENA, I’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE: The 1975 World Champion Warriors were honored before the game, including the team’s singular star, Rick Barry.

On October, 29, 1977, at the old Coliseum Arena, Barry outdid the star-studded 76ers, scoring 51 points in a game that required everything Barry had.

The Warriors slipped past Philadelphia 113-110 as Barry hit 22 field goals–mostly mid-range jumpers–and 7 of 8 from the line. With no three-pointer and the game so close, Barry’s feat was a measure of his skill, stamina and fearlessness in tight spots. Guarded by Dr. J, Doug Collins and primarily George Mcginnis, Barry heard the crowd roar louder and louder as he approached the mid-century mark.

The Warriors head to Madison Square Garden to take on the Knicks on Friday at 4:30 pm PT.