Steph Curry Shines In Warriors’ Play-in Win: ‘this Is Why Steph Came Back’

Take a look around the final moments of the Warriors’ play-in win over the Clippers and try to convince yourself this team was going to play for lottery odds.

Steph Curry took an extra second to celebrate his game-sealing shot.

Draymond Green hugged Steve Kerr at midcourt and neither seemingly wanted to let go.

Behind the podium after the 126-121 win Wednesday night, the coach wore about as proud of an expression as there gets while he pounded his fist five times in succession to make his point.

“This is why Steph came back,” Kerr said. “Everyone out there who thought Steph should’ve taken the rest of the year off — this is what he does, this is who he is. If he can compete, he’s going to compete. And it was just incredible to watch.”

Curry, at age 38 and only recently back from a two-month absence, delivered a vintage performance.

The Warriors hardly led all night, but Curry willed them across the finish line with one of his namesake flurries — 27 of his 35 points coming after halftime, including 16 during one six-minute stretch in the third quarter.

Green freed him up for the last of his seven 3-pointers with 50 seconds left.

Curry sank the shot falling away from the basket and his momentum carried him into the crowd. He shared a moment with a fan before turning around, pumping his fists and letting out a roar.

“I just wanted to enjoy that moment,” Curry said.

This was more than a play-in game.

This was what the Warriors were playing for.

“For one night, we’re us, we’re champions again,” Kerr said. “I know that may sound crazy to everybody out there. I know it’s a play-in game. I don’t care. It was just absolutely beautiful to watch.”

Together, Curry, Green and Kerr have won four championships and been to six NBA Finals.

“I just told them, with all the wins we’ve ever had here, a lot of them with a lot more at stake, this is right up there. Just because where we are, with our age, the decline of our performance this year, the injuries, it was just a beautiful display of competitive will.”

It was, as Kerr said so emphatically, what Curry worked his way back to experience.

“We talked about it the whole time — if we have any type of chance or hope to extend our season, I wanted to be out there,” Curry said. “You don’t imagine it going like it did tonight. … That was fun. That’s what you live for, right there.”

The Warriors will have another chance to extend their season Friday in Phoenix.

That they’re still playing at all is a testament to Curry’s competitive desire to return from a knee issue he initially thought would only keep him out less than two weeks after leaving their game Jan. 30. 

The longer Curry’s absence grew — 27 games by the end — louder came the calls for him to shut it down entirely. Why risk further aggravating an overuse injury and give up almost a 1-in-10 shot at a top-four draft pick just for the chance to likely be swiftly eliminated by the Thunder?

Because the Warriors don’t know how many swings they have left.

At this stage, any elimination game could conceivably be Curry’s last in the postseason.

“You think about it, because that’s your life,” Curry said of the existential question. “But you don’t think about it in the middle of the game, or in your preparation.”

The topic has clearly been on Kerr’s mind at various points this season, dating back to when he termed them a “fading dynasty” earlier this year.

Kerr, whose contract is up after this season, touched on the team’s mortality again before tipoff.

“We’re well aware – all of us – of what we’ve been through together. And that this is an opportunity that we may not get again – we don’t know,” he said. “We’re all sort of at that stage where we have to be conscious of the finality that is possible.”

Curry is under contract through next season, but he has recently said his knee issue has forced him to come to terms with a “new normal.” And there’s no guarantee it gets any easier next year, without Jimmy Butler or Moses Moody for the first portion of the season.

Seeing Butler and Moody go down to season-ending knee injuries made this “such a tough year,” Kerr said.

It also added all the more incentive for Curry to make it back.

Even if it all comes to an end Friday, or in unceremonious fashion in OKC, Curry got to shine on the postseason stage again.

“When you look at some of our games when he was out, I feel like we were right in games and we just didn’t have that closer,” admired Al Horford. “We didn’t have that guy to kind of take us over the top. And that’s what he does. He did it tonight.”

It wasn’t so long ago that a single postseason win — or even the chance — would have exceeded the Warriors’ wildest expectations.

Before Curry arrived, the franchise had played in 11 postseason games in 15 years. The play-in win came in Golden State’s 176th postseason game since Curry made his playoff debut in 2013.

“That’s why this organization has been able to go from worst to first,” Green said. “Steve was right. This is why he wanted to get back. Because when he’s on the floor, you always have a chance.”

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters