{"id":711557,"date":"2026-04-16T05:09:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:09:46","slug":"nba-playoffs-2026-stephen-curry-warriors-end-clippers-season-after-sixers-outlast-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711557\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA playoffs 2026: Stephen Curry, Warriors end Clippers’ season after Sixers outlast Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 17th year of a Hall of Fame career, NBA teams are still wrestling with the question, \u201cWhat do you do with Stephen Curry?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Clippers didn\u2019t have a satisfactory answer on Wednesday in the NBA play-in tournament, and now their season is over. The Warriors will advance to the next leg of the play-in after a 126-121 win and visit the Phoenix Suns on Friday.<\/p>\n

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Curry, who only returned from a knee injury 10 days ago, finished the game with 35 points despite a slow second half. That included the 3-pointer that gave the Warriors the lead for good in the final minute.<\/p>\n

It was an agonizing game for the Clippers, who took a double-digit lead seven different times during the game and kept letting the advantage slip away.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard mostly looked like a star, but the team\u2019s lack of firepower and one-dimensional role players was apparent once the pressure of a fully functional Curry hit. Also not helping was Darius Garland spending most of the game in foul trouble, and the fact that Brook Lopez was second on the team in field goal attempts.<\/p>\n

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Curry was theoretically playing on a minutes limit from his injury, but still logged 36 minutes, second-most on his team. He had a rough first half with 8 points on 2-of-9 shooting, then posted 27 on 10-of-14 shooting in the second.<\/p>\n

He got plenty of help from his supporting cast as well. Draymond Green did an incredible job of locking down Curry in the fourth quarter, Al Horford hit some huge shots down the stretch and Kristaps Porzingis was Golden State\u2019s best player on the floor until Curry got going. They might still be missing Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody, but that group of veterans made it all possible.<\/p>\n

How far will that take the Warriors? Maybe not far, with another must-win game ahead and the Oklahoma City Thunder waiting in the first round, but at least they\u2019re not the Clippers, whose unprotected draft pick will now be a lottery pick for that Thunder organization (Paul George had 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting in the first game).<\/p>\n

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Tyrese Maxey leads Sixers to playoffs<\/p>\n

Earlier in the night, the Philadelphia 76ers used 31 points from Tyrese Maxey to claim the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference and book their ticket to the first round of the playoffs<\/a>, where they will face the No. 2 seeded Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

The Magic, meanwhile, are in jeopardy of missing out on the main bracket. Orlando\u2019s season will be on the line Friday night, when it will welcome in a Charlotte Hornets team that\u2019s buzzing after it opened the play-in tournament with an overtime win over the Miami Heat on Tuesday<\/a>. Whoever wins will claim the No. 8 seed and take on the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in the opening round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Follow along with Yahoo Sports as the Magic take on the Sixers and the Warriors take on the Clippers in the NBA play-in tournament:<\/p>\n

Live coverage is over63 updatesWed, April 15, 2026 at 6:46 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 10:05 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

The NBA\u2019s investigation into the Clippers for alleged salary-cap circumvention with Kawhi Leonard has hung over the franchise all season.<\/p>\n

The league hasn\u2019t announced a timeframe for revealing the findings of its probe \u2014 and any possible punishment for the Clippers \u2014 but it stands to reason it should come sometime this offseason.<\/p>\n

This much is certain: The Clippers\u2019 2026 first-round pick is headed to the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles owes it to OKC for the Paul George trade, which helped the Clippers secure Leonard in free agency.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:56 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Golden State\u2019s vets \u2014 Steph Curry, Draymond Curry and Al Horford \u2014 came to the rescue in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Horford made four of the Warriors\u2019 seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Curry added the tie-breaking 3 with 50.4 seconds left on his way to 35 points. Green tweaked his knee then came up with the two most important defensive plays of the game that iced the victory for Golden State in the final seconds.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:48 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

The Warriors rallied past the Clippers thanks to seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and some clutch defense by Draymond Green.<\/p>\n

The Warriors will face the Phoenix Suns on Friday for the right to face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.<\/p>\n

The Clippers\u2019 season is over.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:46 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Draymond Green deflected the Clippers\u2019 inbounds\u2019 pass leading to a fast-break attempt for Brandin Podziemski, whose lay-in attempt was goaltended as he was fouled.<\/p>\n

Green stripped Kawhi Leonard for another turnover the Warrriors turned into a FT by Curry.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:42 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Curry silences the Clippers crowd by breaking a tie game with another 3-pointer with 50.4 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Warriors 120, Clippers 117.<\/p>\n

Clippers ball.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:38 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

A fourth 3-pointer from Horford gave Golden State the lead with about two minutes left \u2014 their first lead since the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:34 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Three straight 3-pointers by Al Horford had the Warriors within two points with under four minutes left. Then Brook Lopez answered with a three for the Clippers.<\/p>\n

Wed, April 15, 2026 at 9:21 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Funny how that happens. A 3-pointer by Gui Santos followed by another 3 from Steph Curry halves the Clippers\u2019 lead. Kristaps Porzingis drove for an and-1 then drilled a 3-pointer of his own, and suddenly Golden State is within 100-97 with 8:16 left.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 9:15 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

The Clippers\u2019 lead is up to 13, their largest of the game, as the Warriors sit Curry for the first two-plus minutes of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 9:07 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

The best you can say for the Clippers with a quarter to go is they just took the Stephen Curry flurry and are still up by six, thanks to some timely shooting of their own. They already have five players scoring in double digits, led by Kawhi Leonard with 19, while Curry is up to 24 points on the night.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 9:03 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 9:02 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Darius Garland is up to 5 fouls, and Kawhi Leonard also just had a lay-up get reviewed into an offensive foul. Looks like the Clippers are keeping Garland out there.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:59 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Stephen Curry struggled in the first half. He now has 16 points in the second half and is 3-for-3 from deep.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:54 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

The Warriors have narrowed the deficit to two points with a 10-2 run. Stephen Curry already has 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting this quarter.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:44 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Official Ben Taylor limps off the court with what appeared to be a pulled hamstring. In comes the alternate ref after an extended break.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:24 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Los Angeles leads at the half, with Kawhi Leonard at 14 points and 6 rebounds. The best that can be said for the Warriors is they\u2019re only down single digits in a game where Stephen Curry briefly exited with an apparent injury and is currently shooting 2-of-9 from the field.<\/p>\n

Kristaps Porzingis and Brandin Podziemski have been the best players on the floor for Golden State, while Darius Garland has been an effective co-star for Leonard so far.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:21 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard is ridiculous. He just went coast-to-coast with multiple Warriors in his pocket, or worse. Someone should have been called for a foul, but he makes it to the baseline with the ball and gets the two most-earned points of the night.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:19 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Astonishing levels of (ineffective) cringe.<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:18 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackWed, April 15, 2026 at 8:12 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Clippers take a 9-point lead with 3:24 left in the first half and Kawhi Leonard is starting to take over. He has 11 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Stephen Curry is at 3 points on 1-of-6 shooting, the Warriors have combined for 8 turnovers and Draymond Green just got called for a tech out of the break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 17th year of a Hall of Fame career, NBA teams are still wrestling with the question,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[869,7,75,369,473,791,188,200,164,1103,529,871,135,189,1104,6,179,47,526,472,96,573,859,1263],"class_list":{"0":"post-711557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-al-horford","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-brook-lopez","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-darius-garland","14":"tag-detroit-pistons","15":"tag-draymond-green","16":"tag-golden-state-warriors","17":"tag-jimmy-butler-iii","18":"tag-kawhi-leonard","19":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","20":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","21":"tag-miami-heat","22":"tag-moses-moody","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","25":"tag-orlando","26":"tag-paul-george","27":"tag-phoenix-suns","28":"tag-sixers","29":"tag-stephen-curry","30":"tag-the-warriors","31":"tag-tyrese-maxey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116412666188096182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711557","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=711557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}