SAN FRANCISCO — For what seemed like hours, the basketball sat suspended in mid-air.
Suspended, like Draymond Green. Suspended, like the Golden State Warriors’ season, at times on the precipice of collapse. Suspended, 40-some feet above the Chase Center floor.
As gravity finally wrestled possession of the ball and dragged it toward the basket at an acceleration rate of 9.81 meters per second squared, a miss would spell bitter disappointment. Another one that got away. Another indicator that the Golden State Warriors just aren’t good enough.
Any other player catching the ball with three seconds on the shot clock and one of the league’s best defenders rapidly vacuuming up airspace on a closeout, leaving only time for a split-second vertical launch, would inspire only pessimistic exasperation.
But, as we’ve learned over … and over … and over during the last decade-plus, this is not any other player. This is Wardell Stephen Curry II.
“Nothing shocks me with Steph” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “I mean, that shot was insane — the catch-and-shoot, the arc. But I fully expected it to go in, and I think all of our fans did too.”
Sure enough, Kerr’s prognostication came to fruition, and Curry put the Boston Celtics to bed, the same way he did in the 2022 Finals — met with shrugs, shaking heads and resignation from the Boston faithful.
Insane. Magical. A moon ball. A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. That’s just a sampling of the descriptors used for what transpired in the Warriors’ 132-126 overtime win over the best team in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday night.
To solely chalk up Curry’s heroics to metaphysics and mythology, however, betrays the arduous work that leads to these moments. He practices this exact shot — the 3-pointer that kisses the rafters before falling through the net — during his famous pregame warmup routine. For the second straight game, Curry did the routine early, before fans were allowed to enter, on Tuesday night.
What the crowd missed during warmups, Curry delivered gift wrapped as a holiday present at the end of overtime.
“I was watching it in slow motion,” Kerr said of the dagger shot. “To put us up four with 10 seconds left, obviously the backbreaker. Steph brings joy to the world. He’s incredible.”
We’ve seen shots like this from Curry before — well maybe not quite like this — but the circumstances that led to the latest iteration were particularly dire. When Curry was forced to the bench after picking up his fifth foul halfway through the third quarter with the Warriors trailing by 13 points, there wasn’t much hope around the arena, other than from those cloaked in Celtics green.
After the deficit ballooned to as 17 points, the Warriors, without their leader on the floor, chiseled away until they trailed by 11 heading into the fourth quarter. Curry checked back in, and proceeded to play the entire final 17 minutes of the game without picking up a foul, producing one of his signature moments along the way. He finished with 33 points, 20 of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime, on 6-for-11 3-point shooting.
“When I got that fifth foul in the third quarter, just trying to stay mentally locked in and not let yourself kind of float away in frustration because you’re not out there,” Curry said after the game. “And just wait patiently until I got back and had my moment in the fourth.”
In recent games, it’s been Golden State coughing up leads. This time they flipped the script, resulting in a win that they believe can be the turning point for what’s been a disappointing 2023-24 season thus far. Not only did the Warriors show resolve and beat one of the NBA’s best teams, but they also received another vintage game from Klay Thompson, who put up 24 points on 6-for-15 3-point shooting. Rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis followed up his breakout game in Portland with an even more impressive performance, finishing with 10 points, 13 rebounds and three jaw-dropping blocks in a season-high 29 minutes.
After a sputtering start and Green’s suspension, the Warriors needed this win. Back-to-back victories over the Nets and Trail Blazers this past weekend weren’t exactly convincing, but Tuesday’s performance has the feel of a momentum-changer — proof that, while still a work in progress, Golden State is still capable of beating any team at any time, as long as Steph Curry is on the floor.
“It feels like this might be the one we need,” Kerr said of Tuesday’s win. “This could be the game that kind of helps right the ship, and hopefully we can settle in now and really get some momentum.”