Most leads aren’t safe against the Golden State Warriors. No lead is safe when Stephen Curry is on the court.
The New Orleans Pelicans found that out the hard way Thursday night in Game 3 of their NBA playoff series, entering the fourth quarter with a 20-point lead that quickly dried up at the Smoothie King Center.
When Anthony Davis missed a free throw to keep New Orleans’ lead at three with 9 seconds left in regulation, he left the door open for one more Golden State chance.
Bad move.
[protected-iframe id=”f6fd584a93ffccad31956109dcc1d30f-38215605-63561222″ info=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/l1–R5TyhUw” width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””]
Incredible.
Curry finished the night with 40 points, as the Warriors outscored the Pelicans 15-11 in overtime to take a 3-0 series lead with an amazing 123-119 win.
[tweet https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/591469391234998273 align=’center’]
[tweet https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/591466107573116928 align=’center’]
Golden State’s historic fourth-quarter comeback was the second-largest in NBA playoff history. The Boston Celtics erased a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat the New Jersey Nets in the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals, and the Los Angeles Clippers also mounted a 21-point comeback against the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the 2012 playoffs.
“I’ve been a part of a couple comebacks,” Curry told Yahoo Sports after the game, “but not with that much of a deficit in the playoffs in a game that is very important to us, and one we really wanted to get.
“It feels kind of surreal.”
Thumbnail photo via Derick E. Hingle/USA TODAY Sports Images