For once, the odds were against Stephen Curry making a shot. Jeff Lorenz’s mom cautioned the boys more than once that Curry might not show up at all.

She told the kids that the Warriors star might have better things to do than goof around with a bunch of teenagers 2,900 miles from home. But not long after her umpteenth warning, Jeff spotted a car making the slow turn up the family driveway.

Some of the boys kept watching, figuring there must be a luxury vehicle to follow. But there was no limo. Curry and his buddies were all packed into that Mazda 3.

Curry had made his way to central New Jersey after receiving a dare from couple of bored but gutsy high school students. They videotaped themselves making a trick shot — an improbable heave off a deck from behind the backboard — and wondered if the NBA’s famed sharpshooter had the mettle to give it a go himself.

Of course, he did. And the ensuing 2012 journey left behind two lasting lessons for anyone gearing up to watch the Warriors’ playoff run that begins Saturday with a home game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Lesson 1: Curry can drain a shot from anywhere, including a stranger’s balcony in Pennington, New Jersey.

Lesson 2: No matter how big the league’s MVP candidate gets, he’s still the type of guy you want over for pizza and game night.

“I actually beat him in Ping-Pong,” Jeff Lorenz, 17, says now. “So I have that over him.”

In fairness, it was Curry who laid down the initial challenge. An early adopter of using social media to connect with fans, he staged a contest asking his followers to send him a clip of their most creative backyard trick shot.

The winner would get a nifty prize: Curry would record their outgoing voice-mail message. That’s why when you call Lorenz now, you hear the point guard’s voice instead: “Hi, This is Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors. If you’re trying to reach Jeff, he’s not here — probably because we’re in the gym shooting hoops. Please leave a message.”

When the high school senior calls back, you get the rest of the story: After winning the contest, Jeff’s friend Ben Schragger figured out that the Warriors would soon be on a road trip to Philadelphia, with a day off before the game. So they sent an email through Curry’s social media team inviting the point guard to come try the shot himself.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this kid has a lot of guts,”’ recalled Bill Voth, the co-founder of Spiracle Media. “I told him it was very, very unlikely. But when I ran it by Steph, he really didn’t even hesitate.”

Curry isn’t one to run from a shot. On Tuesday, shortly after hitting 77 consecutive three-pointers after practice — and 94 out of 100 overall — he explained why he would go so far out of his way to pal around with freshmen from Hopewell Valley Central High School.

“Just a way to make the world smaller,” Curry shrugged. “Obviously, basketball touches a lot of different areas. It’s meant a lot to me to have some people in northwestern New Jersey that I can connect with. To be able to involve the fans and make it personal — that’s what it’s all about.”

At the time of his visit, in March 2012, Curry was struggling with the ankle injuries that sidelined him for all but 23 games that season. “I’m like, well, I’ve got nothing to do on that off-day. So let’s go,” he recalled.

So he went. And then he stayed. With his social media team on hand to document the trip, they made the 45-minute drive east from Philadelphia to Pennington (pop. 2,600).

It took Curry all of nine tries to knock down the shot, burying the 35-footer off the 30-foot-high balcony and raising both hands in triumph.

He hadn’t come all that way to miss. This was the kind of thing he used to do in his own backyard, inventing games to play against his father, former NBA Sixth Man of the Year winner Dell Curry, and his younger brother, Seth, who currently plays in the NBA Development League.

“On every court, we’d find some weird angle, some crazy shot that had nothing to do with traditional basketball. But when you’re a kid and you have that kind of imagination, it’s kind of fun,” Curry said.

Something about hitting the shot off the balcony that day must have awakened his inner child because he was on the next game. Curry stuck around to play the shooting contest “knockout,” then played Ping-Pong, ate pizza, held a cameras-off Q&A and signed everything not bolted down.

“It was almost as if he went to our school and he was just another kid,” Schragger said.

Spiracle Media had asked Lorenz to limit his invite list to six or seven friends. But word got out at school and there were nearly 30 on hand. Curry saw the overflow turnout and was excited, rather than irritated. Voth, his handler that day, considered whisking Curry out of there after a while but never sensed his client wanted to go.

“He’s kind of like the anti-NBA player. It wasn’t like he was going to go out clubbing or hitting the town,” Voth said. “The only thing he had to do that night was to go back to the hotel and FaceTime with his wife.”

All along, Lynn Lorenz watched in wonder.

“I couldn’t believe it when (Curry) actually showed up,” she said. “He is the most unbelievably nice, down-to-earth guy. We’re all such huge Steph Curry fans now. I never liked basketball. But now I’m always watching the Warriors now because of Steph Curry and what he did for the kids.”

In a way, the pizza party rolls on. On every subsequent trip to Philadelphia, Curry arranges for 10 postgame passes for the boys. They show up in homemade “SC30” shirts — that’s the name of his monthly contest ﻿– and Curry gives them a nod during warm-ups and chats with them after game.

The kids’ story gets better every year. At the time of their first meeting, Curry was a promising youngster best known for his March Madness exploits while at tiny Davidson ﻿College in North Carolina.

Now, he’s among the famous faces in NBA, with jersey sales that trail only LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. This year, Curry broke his own league record with 286 three-pointers while averaging 23.8 points and 7.7 assists for the best team in NBA.

“Now, everyone says, ‘You’re the one who knows Steph Curry,’ ” said Jeff Lorenz. “Because now everybody knows him, even my nonbasketball fans. He’s all over the place now. He’s got all the commercials. It’s just crazy.”

Curry this week said he stays in touch with the kids because he likes that the two ringleaders, Jeff and Ben, are into charity work. Jeff does tutoring for the youth organization for Urban Promise while Ben is the CEO of the national charity Cards2Kids, which donates sports cards to kids in need.

“They’re awesome. They’re down-to-earth kids,” Curry said. “I know they’re hardworking. They have big hearts, too. They do a great job of using whatever platform they have to help others.

“They’re pretty good at Ping-Pong, too. They kind of beat me up when I went over to their house.”

Contact Daniel Brown at dbrown@mercurynews.com