Stephen Curry scored 12 points in the last 2:21 of regulation against Orlando. Then his coach started overtime with him on the bench. Both facts belong in any honest reading of Saturday’s 126-119 win, the Warriors’ seventh straight.
Curry was clearly the closer. The better question is what he was closing for, and whether the Warriors can afford to keep needing him to.
Curry’s Late Shots Saved the Game
The scoring was decisive, and it held up under the most pressure of the night. Orlando flipped a 16-point first-half deficit into a six-point fourth-quarter lead, and Curry answered with 12 points in the final 2:21 of regulation: two deep 3s, a layup, two free throws and a driving layup with 25.2 seconds left to put the Warriors up two.
All four of his fourth-quarter field goals came inside the last three minutes, each one tying the game or taking the lead. He also finished it, converting a three-point play with 1:38 left in overtime and scoring a layup in the final minute, closing on 13-of-19 shooting, 5 of 10 from 3-point range and 10 of 10 at the free-throw line.
He did it in his age-38 season. Take away those last seven minutes and the Warriors probably lose to a team that came in at 2-6.
Curry Had Help, and the Deeper Problem Was Rebounding
Calling this a solo rescue leaves out half of the fourth quarter. Curry and rookie Yaxel Lendeborg combined for 23 points in the period on 8 of 10 from the field, and Lendeborg finished with 23 points and eight rebounds.
Overtime makes the case more clearly still. Curry was on the bench when the extra period began and did not return until the 3:48 mark, with the Warriors ahead by two. The bench outscored Orlando’s 42 to 31, and Draymond Green handed out a season-high 13 assists.
The Warriors had other people producing. What they did not have was a way to end a defensive possession. Golden State came down with three offensive rebounds; Orlando secured 24, and finished the night with 57 total rebounds to the Warriors’ 42.
Add 19 turnovers, which Orlando converted into 26 points, and you have the whole reason the game got close. The play that forced overtime came straight out of that pattern: Jamal Cain’s putback with two seconds left, on Orlando’s third try in the final moments, sent it to an extra period. Curry’s go-ahead layup should have won it in regulation. The Warriors gave up the rebound that undid it.
A 21-Rebound Deficit Is Not a One-Night Problem
The Warriors won because of Curry’s late shot-making. They needed it because they lost the game in nearly every other category they control. Both statements are true, and the second one is the one with consequences.
A 21-rebound deficit and an eight-to-one gap on the offensive glass will not hold up over a season, and a team leaning on a 38-year-old to cover for it will spend him. That cost has already started. Steve Kerr has been rationing Curry’s minutes, and on Saturday he sat him to start overtime and then went back to him to close it — stretching Curry to 36 minutes, a season high.
The roster is not close to full either. Jimmy Butler is out until at least January, Moses Moody is weeks from returning, and Kristaps Porziņģis has stepped away from basketball.
This is one game, and the streak does not rest on Curry’s late scoring alone. The worrying part is Saturday specifically, where the rest of the team let a lead slip until only Curry’s shooting could save it.
The part of this win nobody is talking about is what it costs. Every game the Warriors lose on the glass becomes a game where Kerr breaks his own minutes plan. Curry has shown he can win those games. Asking him to do it all winter is how a seven-game streak turns into a tired star by March.
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