Clippers’ season ends as Steph Curry rallies Warriors to a Play-In game win

INGLEWOOD — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue insisted he wasn’t nervous going into a Play-In Tournament game against the Golden State Warriors. After the kind of season the Clippers have endured, what was one more game?

But this wasn’t just a regular-season game. This was an elimination game with the winners getting another opportunity to extend their season and the losers going on vacation.

Perhaps Lue should have been worried. Steph Curry scored 27 of his 35 points in the second half and the 10th-seeded Warriors closed an electrifying fourth quarter on a 16-6 run for a 126-121 comeback win on Wednesday night at the Intuit Dome.

The Warriors held Clippers star Kawhi Leonard to just two points in the fourth quarter – a dunk with 16 seconds left – and got key contributions from veterans Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford while erasing a 13-point deficit to send the stunned ninth-seeded Clippers into the offseason.

The Warriors now travel to face the eighth-seeded Phoenix Suns on Friday in another elimination game with the winner advancing to a best-of-seven first-round playoff series against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are left to contemplate their future, which could include several roster moves in the offseason. But for now, Lue was “pissed off” after the Clippers let the game slip away.

“We had the game in our hands and made some silly plays,” Lue said. “Not doing the right thing execution-wise, and to be up 13 with 10 minutes to go in the game, we have to finish the game. So, I’m disappointed about that.”

The Warriors endured a slew of injuries – including losing Curry for more than two months until his recent return – during what was only their second losing season (37-45) in their 12 under Coach Steve Kerr. They gave the Clippers all they could handle in a see-saw game, but the hosts had an answer for every challenge for the bulk of the night.

Kerr and his staff focused largely on trying to slow Leonard, who had one of the best seasons of his career.

“They had a great game plan, just being physical all game,” Leonard said. “Making sure I don’t get no catch-and-shoot shots, missing every pick and roll, getting in the post and seeing two bodies. And then Draymond, Hall-of-Fame defender. So yeah, it was hard to even get shots up.”

The Clippers led 98-85 with 9:53 to play, but the 38-year-old Curry led a furious comeback alongside Porzingis (20 points) and the 39-year-old Horford, as the Warriors shot 15 for 20 from the field in the fourth (making eight 3-pointers).

“When we increased the lead, they never wavered with their confidence and they executed,” Lue said. “They’ve been together for a while and they run good stuff and when they execute at a high level and you make some mistakes, they’re going to make you pay.”

A COMEBACK VICTORY IN A MUST-WIN CLASH!

With just under 10 minutes to play, the Warriors trailed by 13 points. From there, GSW:

▪️ Outscored LAC 41-23
▪️ Shot 14-18 (.778) from the field
▪️ Drained 8 threes pic.twitter.com/wwSTKQ2kDp

— NBA (@NBA) April 16, 2026

Gui Santos, who made key contributions with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, made a layup with 2:45 left to get the Warriors within 115-114. Horford then gave them a 117-115 lead on a 3-pointer – his fourth consecutive long-range shot – with 2:12 left.

Clippers center Brook Lopez tied the score on a pair of free throws, but Curry again found his mark, burying his seventh 3-point shot of the night for a 120-117 lead with 50.4 seconds left. A Green steal on an inbound pass led to a Brandin Podziemski three-point play at the other end.

Green then stole the ball from Leonard on the ensuing possession and Curry made one of two free throws for a seven-point lead with 32.5 seconds left and the Warriors closed out the win with two more Podziemski free throws in the final 10 seconds.

Green finished with seven points, six rebounds, nine assists and four steals and his defense against Leonard in the second half was critical.

The Clippers took an 89-83 lead into the fourth and immediately pushed it to 92-83 on a 3-pointer by Bennedict Mathurin, his fifth of the game.

But the Warriors weren’t going away. Buoyed by the vocal Warriors fans in the arena, Golden State pulled to within 100-97, forcing Lue to call a timeout with 8:06 left to play.

After the timeout, Garland scored a three-point play and Curry countered with a layup to keep the game close. Lopez added an 8-foot hook shot to push the Clippers to 105-99 at the 7:21 mark.

Garland, who finished with 21 points and eight assists despite battling foul trouble all night, buried a step-back 3-pointer less than a minute later to give the Clippers a 108-99 lead.

“Not a lot of good possessions for us,” Garland said of the fourth quarter. “Space was kind of messed up a little bit, but the dump was on Kawhi. That was it. But yeah, 30 [Curry] did what 30 does, bro. That’s the fourth quarter.”

The game featured two future Hall of Famers and multi-time NBA champions in Leonard and Curry, who wears No. 30. The superstars dueled throughout to the delight of a sellout crowd that had their definite favorites.

Leonard finished with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field to go with seven rebounds and three assists, while Curry shot 12-for 23 overall and 7 for 12 from 3-point range, pacing the Warriors’ 19-of-41 showing from behind the arc.

Mathurin had 23 points and shot  5 for 6 from 3-point range off the bench to lead the Clippers, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2022 and only the third time during their streak of 15 consecutive winning seasons. They survived a chaotic 6-21 start to finish 42-40, but two late-season losses to Portland dropped them to the No. 9 seed, requiring them to need two Play-In victories instead of one to make the playoffs.

The Clippers came out exactly the way Lue had hoped, running out to a 10-point lead within the first three minutes. He had warned his team that they could not take their time getting settled against the Warriors, not in this one-and-done game.

“We got to come into the game, with our mindset right, understand defensively how we got to start the game, and not have a lot of game-playing mistakes,” Lue said. “We got to take care of the basketball, can’t turn it over, give them a chance to get out of the transition and score the basketball. … We got to do it right away.”

But these were the championship pedigree Warriors, led by four-time NBA champions Curry and Green, and they didn’t back down. They battled back to pull within 20-19 but trailed 31-22 by the end of the first quarter.

That didn’t seem to faze Golden State, which opened the second quarter on a 13-0 run to take a 35-31 lead. But like most of the leads in this game, it didn’t last as the Clippers regained the advantage on a layup by Kris Dunn and a pullup jumper by Leonard.

Curry had two 3-pointers (one made, the other hit the rim) waved off because of offensive fouls that would have tied the score at 48 in the second quarter, prompting Kerr and Green to engage the referees in lengthy conversations. The Clippers used distraction to their advantage and grabbed a 51-42 lead on consecutive baskets by Jones.

The Warriors again got back into the game on back-to-back 3-pointers by Podziemski and Curry to pull within 52-48, but the Clippers outscored the Warriors in the final 2:35 to take a 61-53 lead into halftime.

Golden State got a classic second-half barrage from Curry, who returned only five games ago from a 27-game absence with a knee injury. After managing just eight points on 2-for-9 shooting in the first half, he scored 16 points and hit three 3-pointers in six electrifying minutes of the third quarter to keep the Warriors in it while the Clippers nearly pulled away.