Stephen Curry delivered when the Golden State Warriors needed him most.
His 29-foot 3-pointer with 51 seconds left highlighted a closing 16-6 run and sent the Warriors past the LA Clippers 126-121 in Wednesday’s 9-10 Play-In game at Intuit Dome.
Before the late-game surge, the Clippers led 115-110 and had been up by as many as 13 in the fourth quarter — another late-game breakdown on a stage that has consistently troubled them.
Curry, who briefly left the bench in the first quarter with an apparent injury, finished with 35 points on 12-of-23 shooting, including 7 of 12 from beyond the arc. He had just eight points in the first half after missing seven of his first nine attempts.
The Warriors advance to face the Phoenix Suns on Friday for the Western Conference’s No. 8 seed. The winner will face the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
For the Clippers, it marks their first missed postseason in four years — and another blown double-digit fourth-quarter lead in Play-In play.
Clippers writer Law Murray and Warriors writer Nick Friedell share their immediate takeaways from the scene.
The Porziņģis effect
Kristaps Porziņģis has struggled to find consistency — both on the floor and because of ongoing health issues — during his brief stint with the Warriors.
On Wednesday night, he turned in his best performance in a Golden State uniform, finishing with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes.
He was the offensive difference-maker the Warriors envisioned when they acquired him from the Atlanta Hawks just before February’s trade deadline in exchange for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield.
Porziņģis played with an extra bounce in his step throughout the night, moving with more purpose on both ends, and his teammates fed off that energy. Porziņģis’ presence helped stabilize key stretches as Golden State chipped away at a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit.
He wasn’t alone. Curry scored 16 of his 35 points in the third quarter to keep the Warriors within reach, and Al Horford — Porziņģis’ former teammate in Boston — added four fourth-quarter 3-pointers, finishing with 14 points.
But for a team still searching for reliable support around its core, this was the version of Porziņģis the Warriors have been waiting on.
It took 15 games, but he arrived when they needed him most. — Friedell
Clippers come up short, again
Just as they did twice in 2022, the Clippers let another one slip away — this time against a Golden State team that finished the regular season with five more losses.
The Clippers led by 13 with 9:53 remaining. But the game never felt secure.
Kawhi Leonard couldn’t rest, logging just 7:45 off the floor; the Clippers were outscored by 11 in that time. Darius Garland, the team’s secondary star, logged just 31:08 and the Clippers were outscored by nine points with him on the floor.
This wasn’t just a missed opportunity. It was a familiar one.
For a team that spent much of the season trying to recover from a 2-13 stretch in November, the ending felt appropriate. It was simply an unserious performance at the hands of a team that showed the toughness and poise to keep playing instead of waiting for a win to come.
