Stephen Curry goes off as Clippers blow 22-point second-half lead
The Golden State Warriors might just be a playoff team if this Stephen Curry guy keeps it up.
In yet another otherworldly performance, the former MVP led the Warriors to a 115-110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, improving the team’s record to 5-4.
Curry almost single-handedly erased an 85-63 deficit with three minutes left in the third quarter, scoring or assisting on 16 of the Warriors’ next 18 points. Then he started doing stuff like this in the fourth quarter:
look at this pass from Steph Curry pic.twitter.com/UnAwoy7O6t
— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) January 9, 2021
He eventually finished with 38 points and 11 assists, and he saved the best for last with this dagger over Paul George:
STEPH. DAGGER. 🗡 pic.twitter.com/EWASt5uO4K
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 9, 2021
For the Warriors, Curry’s eruption more than a welcome sight. It’s the only way they’ve been able to win this year:
The warriors are now 5-0 when Steph scores 30+. 0-4 when he doesn’t
— sam esfandiari (@samesfandiari) January 9, 2021
Clippers haunted by bubble?
The Clippers ended up yielding a 52-20 run after holding a 22-point lead, and you can pretty much hear the snickers from NBA Twitter from here.
Plenty of NBA fans will look at that blown lead and naturally jump to the conclusion of “Same ol’ Clippers,” with the memories of a blown 3-1 lead with multiple Denver Nuggets comebacks still fresh in everyone’s minds.
After taking a 22-point lead late in the 3rd quarter the Clippers:
- Committed 10 turnovers
- Shot 7-of-19
- Were outrebounded 14-7
- Scored 20 points as a team (3 3-pointers)
- Allowed Steph Curry to score 18 points (4 3-pointers)— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) January 9, 2021
Of course, those same Clippers (with a new head coach and some new players) have taken and held onto double-digit leads against those same Nuggets this season, as well as the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers. In fact, this was the first loss of the Clippers’ four this season in which they led by more than two points at any point.
But that’s just what happens when you have the kind of playoffs the Clippers just did, especially with the Clippers’ history, and the chokers label isn’t going away unless the Clippers do something dramatic, which isn’t happening until at least the postseason.
Plenty of teams have blown 20-point leads this year (an especially chaotic one thanks to the truncated offseason), but the Clippers are just going to have to deal with that familiar narrative when it happens to them.
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