After Curry's highlight heave in a 40-point game, Green says the 'NBA is lucky' to watch the showman

NEW YORK (AP) — Perhaps only Stephen Curry could describe his basket as the first half was ending Thursday as a “rhythm shot.”

Who else but the most accomplished outside shooter in history could be in rhythm when he's nearly 40 feet away and not even facing the basket?

Curry threw in the turnaround heave from 38 feet with 0.3 seconds left in the second quarter en route to scoring 40 points in Golden State's 121-119 victory over Brooklyn, then just started running directly to the locker room so he could try to hide his surprise that it went in.

Those who have watched him for all these years weren't surprised at all.

“Most people can make that shot luckily,” Draymond Green said. “We all knew that shot was going in. That’s a different thing.”

Curry already made one from just beyond halfcourt to end a first half on this road trip, when he scored 56 points on Feb. 27 in Orlando in the opener of it. This one was closer, but seemingly more difficult.

He was standing with his feet inside the Nets' logo that extends over both sides of the center court line when he took a pass from Jimmy Butler. Curry simply spun and fired a turnaround jumper, giving Butler about as unlikely an assist as he'll ever get.

“That one, that’s not in the practice routine, but you have an idea of where you are on the court and as weird as it might sound, it’s kind of a rhythm shot because you don’t have any other thought than just to try to get it off,” Curry said. ‘"But it did surprise me, though. That’s why I just ran to the locker room."

The fans in the announced crowd of 18,413, the largest to see a Nets game at Barclays Center, were screaming as Curry ran off. They already had been for most of the second quarter, when he made three 3-pointers to get the Warriors almost back to even after Brooklyn ran out to a 27-5 lead.

“When we were out there on the court, I was thinking to myself the NBA is lucky, because this man is going into every arena and putting on a show,” Green said. “Sounds like it’s a home game every time he does it.”

Curry said those types of reactions from opposing crowds are because of the years of winning the Warriors have done. Green chalks is up more to the performances his teammate is giving them.

“I just think that the degree of difficulty is so crazy. You can see a guy score 40 points and be like, ‘He had a good game,’” Green said. “But when you see him score 40 points, it’s totally different because it’s not only him scoring the 40 points, but he’s literally putting on a show. It's like you want to watch the Cirque du Soleil or something.

"It’s not your typical show you’re going to watch,. It’s a whole bunch of different acrobatics that go into it.”

The Warriors are headed home now to start a seven-game homestand, their longest of the season. It'll be hard for Curry to be much better than he was while Golden State was going 4-1 on the road.

“Steph just had an incredible trip," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "Put on a show in every city.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) shoots a three-point shot over Brooklyn Nets' Cameron Johnson (2) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, March 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) shoots a three-point shot over Brooklyn Nets' Nic Claxton (33) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, March 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) shoots over Brooklyn Nets' Keon Johnson (45) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, March 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) gestures after making a three-point shot during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets Thursday, March 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets Thursday, March 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) celebrates after making a three-point shot during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets Thursday, March 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK (AP) — Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.

Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.

The couple will be brought from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse just around the corner from the one where President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.

As a criminal defendant in the U.S. legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime — including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he'll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.

Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.

Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegaunsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.

Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the U.S. return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking — although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and “respectful relations” with the U.S.

Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.

The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing " oil quarantine."

Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the western hemisphere.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”

He called on Venezuela's Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences.

A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.

It wasn't clear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a U.S. lawyer yet.

He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.

While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community's 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.

Maduro, his wife and his son — who remains free — are charged along with Venezuela's interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.

Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included a local drug boss' killing in Caracas, the indictment said.

Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro's wife, according to the indictment.

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

Reward posters are passed out at a gathering celebrating the deposing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Katy, Texas. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro places his hand over his hear while talking to high-ranking officers during a military ceremony on his inauguration day for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)