Stephen Curry and the triumphant 3

— -- NEW YORK -- The season Larry Bird claimed his first 3-point shootout, he managed eight treys in his first 20 games. This season, Klay Thompson had more than that in one quarter against the Sacramento Kings.

That's an emphatic indicator of how the game has changed, but it's Thompson's teammate who best embodies the shift. Stephen Curry's 3-point shooting does more to alter defensive game plans than anyone's. His ability off the dribble is unprecedented, so it wrecks decades of accrued knowledge on how to guard pick-and-rolls. So he had no reason prove his credentials in a 3-point shootout with ball racks. There was little cause for Curry to risk failing in this novelty competition for a fourth time, just to be mentioned among the likes of Craig Hodges.

Something's changed over the recent years, though. As the 3-pointer has grown as a weapon, so too has this particular competition. And much like Curry, the 3-point shootout is kind of a big deal these days.

"If you look at everyone individually it's pretty special to have all these guys out there shooting. And I wanted to be part of that group," said Curry in explaining his fourth trip to this rodeo. As Curry listed his impressive fellow snipers in this contest, it sounded like something out of "The Iliad" and its catalogue of ships ("Kyle Korver is having a crazy shooting year. Shooting 50 percent. Could be the first guy in history to shoot 50 and 50 and 90. Obviously Klay ...").

Curry did better than prevail, though. He set a record in his final round (27 points), clinching an easy victory over the best 3-point shooting field we've ever seen. Better luck next time to Irving, to Korver, to J.J. Redick, to James Harden, to Thompson, to Wesley Matthews, and to Marco Belinelli. Curry's incredible stretch of 13 consecutive makes galvanized the crowd into a very un-Barclays crescendo of joyous cheers.

The competition wasn't half bad before that final round, either, with Curry posting a 23, only to be literally one-upped by his shooting guard, who scored a 24. Kyrie Irving, who moonlights as human proof that the hot hand is real, also claimed a great first-round tally of 23 before fizzling later. Though Zach LaVine may have shocked the dunk contest off life support, this is the competition where great players push each other.

How did the shootout become the weekend's most anticipated event? It's those analytics Charles Barkley loves so much. As Curry succinctly puts it, "Three's always better than two." As teams embraced that not-so-difficult mantra, players developed ridiculous range. Now the league is drifting farther from the hoop, the game's forces pulling players to the exterior like a gravitron ride. A great dunk will always be special, but great 3-point shooters are increasingly powerful. On Saturday night, Curry delivered a beautiful reminder of just how far the game has evolved.