INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Stephen Curry scored 27 of his 35 points in the second half, Al Horford hit four 3-pointers during Golden State’s electrifying fourth-quarter comeback and the Warriors advanced in the NBA’s play-in tournament with a 126-121 victory over the LA Clippers on Wednesday night.
Curry’s seventh 3-pointer broke a tie with 50.4 seconds to play for the 10th-place Warriors, who erased a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
Golden State finished on a 16-6 run and held Kawhi Leonard scoreless in the fourth until the final 16 seconds.
After this time-defying rally, Curry, Draymond Green and the postseason-tested Warriors are one game from another playoff berth despite going 37-45 in the regular season and losing Jimmy Butler III for the season in January.
The Warriors will travel to face the Phoenix Suns on Friday, with the winner moving on to play defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
Leonard scored 21 points for 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. Bennedict Mathurin led Los Angeles with 23 points, and Darius Garland had 21 points and eight assists while battling foul trouble.
The Clippers led 98-85 with 9:53 to play, but the 38-year-old Curry fueled Golden State’s furious comeback alongside the 39-year-old Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, who put up 20 points.
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. He scored 16 points in a six-minute span of the third quarter to keep the Warriors in it while the Clippers nearly pulled away.
After Horford hit three 3-pointers down the stretch in the fourth, Gui Santos’ layup with 2:45 to play trimmed the Clips’ lead to 115-114. Horford’s fourth 3-pointer put the Warriors up 117-115 with 2:12 left.
The Clippers rallied from a chaotic 6-21 start to the season to finish 42-40 in this once-woebegone franchise’s 15th winning campaign in a row — the NBA’s longest active streak. But two late-season losses to Portland dropped Los Angeles to the ninth place in the Western Conference, requiring the Clips to get two play-in victories instead of one to make the playoffs.
After managing just eight points on 2-for-9 shooting in the first half, Curry scored 16 points and hit three 3-pointers in six thrilling minutes of the third.
Referee Ben Taylor left shortly after halftime with an injury. He was replaced by alternate referee Sean Corbin.
