Warriors shock the world, outlast Clippers late on the road to advance to next Play-In game
The Clips' season goes Night Night as the Warriors' stunning comeback reminds Dub Nation of why we believe and also why their opponents should be very concerned.
I was frying hamburger meat in my kitchen when Darius Garland nearly broke my heart. There was 6:37 left in the fourth quarter and he hit a nasty triple to push the Los Angeles Clippers up 108-99. The L.A. crowd erupted, the noise from the TV almost covering the exhale that escaped from my lungs; I was a man who had already started writing a eulogy in his head.
I watched Garland celebrate with edgy jubilance, a man gleefully sticking the knife into the faintly beating heart of the Golden Empire. The kind of celebration that tells you a man knows exactly what he just did to you. And standing there with a spatula in my hand and a season’s worth of gut punches sitting heavy on my chest, I started doing what Warriors fans have been conditioned to do after a year like this: I started doing the math on heartbreak.
I thought about former Cavaliers coach turned Clips coach Ty Lue knowing all the schemes to harass a youthful MVP Steph Curry, let alone the late-30s model trudging up and down the floor looking for slivers of daylight. I thought about Kawhi Leonard, a man on a vengeance tour ever since he got Zaza’d and David Lee’d a decade ago as a Spur. Both of them know what it feels like to walk into Oracle Arena and walk out with a championship ring; those two men are responsible for the most devastating losses in GSW franchise history. They didn’t forget how to rip the air out of Dub Nation.
I thought about how rangy and physical the Clippers’ defenders were, how every time Golden State started breathing, L.A. cut off the oxygen. I thought about how small Brandin Podziemski looked trying to put his shoulder into penetration lanes that slammed shut the second he touched the paint. I thought about how labored Draymond Green’s legs looked as he fought to stay in front of Kawhi, that heavy shuffle of a veteran who has given everything to a franchise and keeps reaching back for more even when the tank reads empty.
The Warriors trailed after the first quarter, down nine, 31-22. They clawed back to edge the Clippers out in the second and third periods, not blowing anyone out, just grinding. Keeping the patient on life support.
The Clippers led this game 86% of the time, their lead stretching out to as much as thirteen. They shot a perfect 100% from the free throw line. They had more steals, more fast break points, and more of this game under their control than Golden State did for almost the entire forty-eight minutes.
And then in the fourth, the Warriors didn’t just stabilize. They dug deep into their identity, a championship spirit that the Clippers will never be able to relate to, and clawed out of the grave Lue and Leonard had put them in with a 43-point 4th quarter explosion. A reckoning.
Before we talk about how this game ended, we have to talk about how it stayed alive long enough to end the right way. And that conversation starts with Kristaps Porzingis.
What he gave Golden State tonight was something quieter and more valuable than a highlight reel. He tallied 20 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks, and the kind of gravity that turned every Clipper defensive scheme into a live grenade. Curry and Porzingis on the floor at the same time is an automatic puzzle for any defense, whether it is a pick-and-roll, a set play, or Golden State pushing in transition.
The moment both of them are out there together, the defense has to make an impossible choice and live with the consequences. There is no right answer. There is only which mistake you are willing to make.
But here is what the stat line does not tell you: Porzingis was running on empty. You could see it in the way he was moving in the second half, the effort still there but the body sending a very different message. He battled gutsily through everything the Clippers threw at him, kept Golden State close enough to breathe, and then passed the baton. Not dramatically, not with fanfare. Just a weary nod to his teammates that said: I got you this far. Now go.
And go they did.
No easy way out
The closing lineup that finished this game was Curry, Podziemski, Gui Santos, Draymond, and Al Horford. A band of brothers that NBA Twitter would have laughed off a playoff court if you let them tell it. You know the drill Dub Nation: that lineup is simultaneously too old, too injured, too young, too unproven, not good enough. Pick your critique: there was a big one ready for every single man on that floor.
None of it mattered.
Stephen Curry finished with 35 points on 12-of-23 shooting, nailing 7-of-12 from three, dragging his 38-year-old body through forty-eight minutes of playoff intensity and refusing to blink. He hit shots in the fourth that required not just skill but nerve, the kind of gold-blooded precision that does not age because it was never physical to begin with. It lives somewhere deeper than muscle memory. He’s unreal.
Podz, the guy a portion of this fanbase I believe has never fully committed to, showed up in the closing minutes and gave the Warriors exactly what they needed. Seven rebounds, plus-10 for the game, and the kind of defensive engagement and connective play that does not show up clean in a box score but absolutely shows up in the outcome. When he desperately ran down the floor to attempt a layup in the final minute to put the game away, I think all of Dub Nation was screaming something. Either “Go Podz Go!” or “Whoa Podz No!”. But his and-1 layup crippled the Clippers, cementing that Podz just closed the biggest game of the year. That is your answer as to how this franchise feels about this young man.
Gui Santos supplied the closing lineup the kind of controlled aggression this offense has been missing, creation without the panic, on 9-of-13 shooting with a plus-16 that tells you everything about how the game flowed when he was locked in. Kerr did not put Santos in that closing group as an experiment. He earned it, quietly, over months of proving he could be trusted when the stakes were highest.
We can’t forget about Captain Graybeard aka Draymond Green took the Kawhi Leonard assignment personally. He dished 9 assists, snagged four steals, and showed the kind of orchestral basketball IQ that coordinates five moving parts into something that feels inevitable in retrospect. His legs were clearly heavy. His mind was not. He showed that he is one of the greatest defenders of all-time, taking on the Klaw like the season depended on it…which it did. Leonard finished with 21 points on 17 shots and 5 turnovers, effectively clamped. Green getting two key steals in the final moments of the game on Leonard must have had Clippers owner Steve Ballmer in fits.
And then there is Al Horford. His 14 points off of the bench were everything the Dubs needed. The multiple bombs he rained down in that fourth quarter felt like a rebuttal to every narrative written about his decline this season. The Clippers had no clean answer for him because there is no clean answer for this veteran stretch big who has decided he is not done yet. The old man showed up when it mattered, with a chemistry brewing with Curry that is absolutely terrifying to guard.
What This Season Was Always For
All season, buried under the losses and the injury reports, there was something easy to miss: this team has dogs. Proven champions. Men who have been in the fiery cauldrons of postseason basketball and come out the other side with rings, scar tissue, and the specific kind of calm that only comes from having survived this before. These Dubs don’t need your odds or your perfect draw. Just a floor and sneakers.
Between every gut punch, every funeral we almost held, every piece written wondering if this was finally the end, I’ve been harping on one point. You do not want to bet against a Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Steve Kerr and a bunch of hoopers who refuse to quit.
Everything was just preparation for this moment. When everyone else’s heartbeat spikes, theirs slows down. I can’t forget Curry wearily high-fiving teammates during that timeout down nine. Still pushing the love, the belief, the “we are not done” energy that radiates off him even when his body is screaming otherwise.
One thing this dynasty proves time and time again to their opponents is it is not how you start swimming; rather it is how you finish. The Warriors have always been the unyielding waves, drawing opponents deeper and deeper into the blue splash, wearing them down until the cold water does what it does. The Clippers felt the icy depths close over them tonight. They are down there now, alongside every other dynasty rival who thought they had this team figured out.
This has been a very hard season for the Warriors. But the Clippers also had a tough season (hence why both teams were in the bottom corner of the play-in tournament). And they turned it around, playing some damn good basketball, abruptly cutting ties with ex-Warrior Chris Paul, as well as the wanderer James Harden, and building around arguably Kawhi’s best season yet.
I wrote an article at the end of last year about how I get great pleasure in watching the Clippers struggle. An old rival of the dynasty, they always find a way to annoy the Dubs. For the Warriors to knock them off, on their home floor, and do it in the most agonizing way possible? Chef’s kiss.
This one is for ex-Warrior teammate Chris Paul, who was unceremoniously dispatched from the team earlier this season.
Rest easy Clips, you’ll never know what being a champion is like as long as Steph Curry is dribbling a basketball. WE’RE ON TO PHOENIX, WHOOOO!
The Warriors scored 43 points in the 4th quarter last night.
The most points the Warriors scored any quarter this entire regular season was 44. The most points the Warriors scored any 4th quarter this regular season was 40.
The last time the Warriors scored more than 43 points in the 4th quarter of any game was when they scored 47 points on 10/18/2018. This is the only game in which the Warriors scored more than 43 points in the 4th quarter since the 1990-1991 season: https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/AadCN
In the playoffs, only two NBA teams have scored more than 43 points in the 4th quarter since the 1991-92 season: https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/9VXgi
The Warriors hit 15 of 20 shots and 8 of 11 threes in the 4th quarter. So they scored 38 points on just 20 shots, for an effective field goal percentage of 95%! They also hit 5 of 6 free throws, but their one free throw miss actually lowered their true shooting percentage all the way down to 93.5%.