The Golden State Warriors had the kind of night that can turn ugly fast, then somehow still ended with Stephen Curry carrying them across the finish line.
Golden State opened up a 16-point first-half cushion against the short-handed Orlando Magic on Saturday night and looked poised to extend its six-game winning streak. Instead, the game tightened, Orlando clawed all the way back to grab a one-point lead heading into the fourth, and the Warriors suddenly needed their superstar to put everything back in order. They did, eventually, in a 126-119 overtime win.
Curry was the difference when the game was hanging by a thread. The 38-year-old scored Golden State’s final 12 points of regulation to drag the Warriors into overtime, then kept the pressure on in the extra session. With less than two minutes left in OT, Orlando still led by one before Curry answered with an and-one layup to swing the lead back to Golden State for good.
He finished with 41 points, six rebounds and six assists, going 13-of-19 from the field and 5-of-10 from three. It was the sort of efficient, relentless night that keeps him in the MVP conversation early in the season.
Curry scored 19 of his points in the fourth quarter and overtime combined, and the shot-making came in every form. He buried threes, finished at the rim and basically served as the Warriors’ entire offense when they needed a bailout.
The workload was heavy enough that head coach Steve Kerr sat Curry and Draymond Green early in overtime, a sign of just how much Golden State had asked of its veteran core. Even then, the Magic were still in position to steal it before Curry shut the door.
Golden State’s problems were impossible to ignore, even in victory. Orlando kept pounding the offensive glass and the Warriors kept giving the ball away at bad times, which let the Magic hang around and eventually surge back into the game.
The rebounding numbers told the story. Orlando grabbed 24 offensive rebounds, while the Warriors had just three. That edge helped the Magic get 33 more field-goal attempts, a massive gap in a game that was otherwise slipping away from Golden State.
Wendell Carter Jr. fueled the second-half push with six offensive boards and 11 rebounds overall, while Jamal Cain added four offensive rebounds among his 12 total boards. On the scoring side, Yaxel Lendeborg gave Golden State another lift with 16 of his 23 points coming in the fourth and overtime, helping the Warriors survive a night when Curry had to do far more than usual.
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Orlando, though, did not let the moment turn into a runaway. Franz Wagner and Jamal Cain helped keep the Magic within striking distance and made the game feel competitive well into the second quarter, a reminder that even on a night when Curry reaches a rare shooting milestone, Golden State still has to finish the job against a team willing to hang around. [Read more 🡒]
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Chris Mullin added even more weight to it this week by publicly backing the rookies trajectory. The Hall of Famer said Lendeborg could be in the Rookie of the Year conversation and even projected a ceiling that includes future All-Star and All-NBA status, which is a lot to put on a player this early. It is only one voice, and only a start, but it shows how quickly Lendeborgs opening stretch has turned into one of the more interesting developments around the Warriors. [Read more 🡒]
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For Warriors fans, that is the part that keeps the conversation alive. Thompson is under contract with Miami now, but he also has a player option for next season, which leaves the door open just enough to keep the speculation going. Even with the move already made, his connection to Golden State has not gone away, and this latest visit only reminded everyone how hard it is to fully close the book on a player who helped define an era. [Read more 🡒]