Stephen Curry and Al Horford yanked a win right out of the Clippers' hands in Inglewood on Wednesday night, as the Golden State Warriors stormed back from a 13-point fourth-quarter hole to stun Los Angeles 126-121 in the West play-in. Curry dropped 35 points, 27 of them after halftime, while Horford buried four three-pointers in crunch time to flip the game on its head. Golden State finished on a 16-6 run and held Kawhi Leonard scoreless in the fourth until the closing moments.
How the Rally Unfolded
According to The Associated Press, Curry's seventh three-pointer snapped a tie with 50.4 seconds left, capping the Warriors' decisive surge. Horford had already drilled three deep ones during the comeback, and his fourth triple put Golden State on top with a little more than two minutes remaining, turning what looked like a comfortable Clippers win into a late-night problem for the home crowd.
Numbers and Turning Points
The box score on ESPN shows Curry going 12-for-23 for his 35 points, with Kristaps Porzingis and Gui Santos chipping in 20 apiece for Golden State. Bennedict Mathurin led the Clippers with 23, while Leonard finished with 21. Team shooting numbers and the play-by-play chart how quickly the game flipped in the final minutes, as the Warriors' vets caught fire and the Clippers' offense suddenly tightened up.
Veterans and the Whistle
The whole thing had a throwback feel, in part because Curry only returned five games ago after missing 27 with an injury, a detail highlighted in the Associated Press recap. The Associated Press also reported that referee Ben Taylor left shortly after halftime with an injury and was replaced by alternate Sean Corbin. For a Warriors team that slogged through a 37-45 regular season, the combination of a healthy Curry and a hot Horford was just enough to keep their postseason hopes breathing.
What’s Next
The Warriors now head to Phoenix for another win-or-go-home showdown on Friday, with the winner grabbing the No. 8 seed and a first-round series against defending champion Oklahoma City, per NBA.com. For the Clippers, a 42-40 season ends with a home play-in loss and a long offseason full of familiar questions about a franchise that has been good enough to win plenty of games but not the ones that matter most. The immediate takeaway is blunt: Golden State's veteran core showed up exactly when it had to, and the Western bracket just got a little spicier.
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