{"id":709702,"date":"2026-04-13T15:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709702\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:04:23","slug":"stephen-curry-shares-his-thoughts-on-facing-clippers-in-do-or-die-play-in-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709702\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Curry Shares His Thoughts On Facing Clippers In Do-Or-Die Play-In Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Curry<\/a> and the Golden State Warriors<\/a> once ruled over the NBA, but they now find themselves in the play-in tournament for the third year in a row. The Warriors finished 10th in the Western Conference in this 2025-26 season with a 37-45 record and will take on the ninth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> in a do-or-die play-in clash on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

We got a bit of a preview of that contest on Sunday, as the Clippers beat the Warriors 115-110 at the Intuit Dome on the final day of the regular season. The game was just the second that Curry had started since returning from patellofemoral pain syndrome, and the superstar guard looked ahead to the rematch in his postgame press conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun,\u201d Curry said, via NBC Sports Bay Area & California. \u201cI mean, we know who they are. Played them twice since the trade deadline. And a little faster pace, obviously without Kawhi [Leonard] tonight, but we know what he\u2019s about and how well he\u2019s been playing. So, it\u2019s just going to be which team can get a game plan together, but stick to that as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a physical defensive team that likes to switch a lot,\u201d Curry continued. \u201cSo, we got to be properly spaced on offense, and we had some good stretches tonight to kind of show that without Draymond [Green], so we\u2019re ready to have him back for Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, who missed this game with a left ankle sprain, quiet is going to be key for the Warriors. Leonard had an outstanding 2025-26 campaign, averaging 27.9 points on 50.5% shooting from the field. He wasn\u2019t quite at his dominant best when these teams faced off, though.<\/p>\n

Leonard averaged 21.7 points on 46.4% shooting from the field in three games against the Warriors. The Clippers still went 2-1 in the games he played, though, and 3-1 overall. They are the favorites for good reason.<\/p>\n

This play-in tournament isn\u2019t one in which the Warriors have been all too successful, either. They entered it as the eighth seed in 2021 when it was first introduced and failed to make it to the playoffs after losing to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Warriors were then back in it in 2024 as the 10th seed and lost to the Sacramento Kings<\/a> in the first game to get knocked out. That dropped them to 0-3 in the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Warriors would finally get their first win in 2025 when they entered as the seventh seed and beat the Grizzlies in their first game. They\u2019re going to have to win two in a row this time around, though, to advance.<\/p>\n

Finishing 10th in the West twice in three seasons is far from ideal, but the Warriors had the injury excuse this time around. Jimmy Butler<\/a> tore his ACL in January, and Curry has only played 43 games. The Warriors have at least been able to ease the two-time MVP back to action, as they had been locked in to the 10th seed for a while.<\/p>\n

Curry was asked here about going from games where the result didn\u2019t really matter to a do-or-die clash, and he thinks the transition won\u2019t be difficult for this group.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper easy because we\u2019ve been there before, whether it\u2019s a Game 7 or that many play-in games that we\u2019ve been fortunate enough to play in,\u201d Curry stated. \u201cMentally, it\u2019s just come with the right approach, the right mentality. As a group, we\u2019re going to have to withstand some runs. We know the ups and downs of you\u2019re not going to play perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut can we just play hard for 48 minutes and not shoot ourselves in the foot with turnovers like we did in the Sacramento game, or allowing a team to play to their strengths, and that\u2019s just game plan discipline,\u201d Curry added. \u201cSo, if we can do those things, you can give yourself a chance, and that\u2019s all you want. It should be fun either way it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would also help the Warriors come away with a win is a Curry masterclass. The 38-year-old had 24 points (7-14 FG), six rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block in 29 minutes against the Clippers. Those minutes will be going up on Wednesday, and you wouldn\u2019t bet against Curry shining on the big stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors once ruled over the NBA, but they now find themselves in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-709702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-laclippers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesclippers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116398017050794261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}