Stephen Curry said he wanted to be on the floor for a night like this, and the Golden State guard delivered in a 126-121 play-in win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday at Intuit Dome. Curry finished with 35 points, including 27 in the second half, as the Warriors erased a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to stay alive in the playoff race.
“Just if we have any type of chance or hope to extend our season. I wanted to be out there to experience it,” Curry said. “You don’t imagine it going like it did tonight, but just proud of how we all fought.”
Golden State kept answering every Clippers push, and Curry said the collective response mattered as much as his scoring burst. “The guys that are out there withstanding the runs that they went on, the leads that they built up and we always had an answer,” he said. “Then you see play after play after play, Al, KP, Gui hit some big shots.”
Curry said the moment reflected the work the Warriors had put into the game plan and the emotional weight of the season. “You think about it cuz that’s your life but you don’t think about it in the middle of a game or in your preparation,” he said. “We’re basketball players and coaches and we all love this game.”
The veteran guard said Golden State’s preparation helped create the kind of edge that showed up late. “The film sessions, they were a little longer than the regular season. The walkthroughs were a little bit more intentional,” Curry said. “Just the conversations that we were having and then that feeds into the game.”
He also praised Draymond Green’s defense and the way the Warriors’ two-man chemistry still wins close games. “He’s special. He’s a Hall of Famer. Just a defensive savant when it comes to being in the right place at the right time,” Curry said. “Just knowing patterns of how a team’s playing you over the course of a game and that there’s a call or an action you can go to that you’re pretty confident we’ll be able to get me a shot.”
Curry’s go-ahead three in the final minute was a reminder of how quickly the game can shift when he and Green read the floor together. “It was just us being in sync on what we were seeing, how they were trying to guard me,” he said. “It was right time, right place, right execution. Thankfully, I made it.”
He said the Warriors’ veterans and younger contributors all helped create the win, including Al Horford’s fourth-quarter shooting and the energy from Gui Santos and Brandin Podziemski. “Gui hit two big shots in the second half that kind of were like momentum killers,” Curry said. “BP was all over the place with his energy.”
Golden State now turns to Friday’s matchup in Phoenix, with a chance to reach the first round. Curry said the mindset remains simple: “We want to go to Phoenix and guarantee a playoff series against OKC. That’s the next goal.”
