Andrew Bogut has heaped praise on Stephen Curry after the Golden State Warriors guard's 40-point match-winning performance.
Curry, named as the NBA's MVP for the second straight year on Tuesday, had to sit out the past two weeks of the playoffs with a badly sprained knee.
He came off the bench in Monday's crucial game four against the Portland Trail Blazers, started coldly but exploded in overtime with 17 of the Warriors' 21 points for a 132-125 victory.
The win in front of a parochial Portland home crowd gave the Warriors a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference semi-final series.
"Steph broke the game open," Bogut told reporters after the game.
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"To come off a two week layoff and make shots the way he did was pretty amazing."
The Warriors can eliminate the Trail Blazers with a win in game five in Oakland on Wednesday.
Curry missed his first nine three point attempts, but hit five of his last seven.
"We knew it wasn't going to last and he was going to make one eventually once he got his eye in," Bogut said.
"He was aggressive, he was getting to the paint and making plays for us.
"That's the Steph that we know."
Curry became the first unanimous MVP in the award's 61-season history, sweeping all 131 first-place votes by members of the media.
