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Stephen Curry Hit Two Ridiculous Threes to Seal a Comeback Win for the Warriors

In Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Stephen Curry comes up in the clutch, Doc Rivers’s funny interaction with a reporter and more.

Dan Gartland

Vintage Steph

The NBA is more fun when Stephen Curry is at the top of his game, and boy, is he killing it right now.

The Warriors are undermanned right now, being forced to play small ball all game long due to the absence of centers James Wiseman and Kevon Looney, but they’re 5–3 in the eight games those guys have missed thanks in large part to the stellar play of Curry and Draymond Green. (Curry is averaging 34.6 points per game on 54.7% shooting over those eight.)

Green missed Wednesday night’s game against the Heat with a sore ankle, so more of the burden fell on Curry—and he stepped up (25 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds). So did Kent Bazemore, who led all scorers with 26 points off the bench. The Warriors never led in regulation and trailed by 14 with 6:40 left in the fourth, but a Bazemore layup tied the game with under a minute to play and gave Golden State a chance to win in overtime.

That was all a prelude to two vintage Steph Curry plays.

The first came with 1:15 left in the extra period, when Curry, after getting sandwiched between Kendrick Nunn and Duncan Robinson, drilled a contested three to give the Warriors a 112–109 lead.

Two possessions later, Curry put the game on ice with an equally absurd shot. This time, he was isolated on Nunn, who did a good-but-not-good-enough job of staying in front of Curry, who was able to bury another three.

What makes Curry the most entertaining player in the NBA isn’t just his ability to hit impressive shots like that, but the confidence he has to take them when the game is on the line. 

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Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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