Latest / The Sports Hangover Daily / Curry Refuses to Age: Buries Clippers With Dagger Three | Apr 17, 2026
Transcript
- Steph Curry is thirty-eight years old, came back from a knee injury ten days ago, and just buried a three with fifty seconds left to knock out the Clippers in a play-in game. Thirty-five points. Seven of twelve from deep. The man refuses to age normally. Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Let's get right into it. Warriors one twenty-six, Clippers one twenty-one. This game had no business being this good. The Clippers led by double digits SEVEN different times. Seven. And every single time, they let the rope slip. Golden State closed on a twenty-seven to thirteen run to end the game, and the dagger was vintage Curry — a deep, deep three with fifty point four seconds left to put the Warriors up one twenty to one seventeen. Game over. Vibes immaculate. But here's what made this win feel different. It wasn't just Steph. Gui Santos went for twenty, six boards, and five assists. Kristaps Porzingis had twenty, including six straight in the fourth when it was getting tight. And then there's Al Horford — the man is thirty-nine years old, came off the bench, hit four threes down the stretch, finished with fourteen points, and was honestly the X-factor. You can't teach old man basketball like that. You just can't. The Clippers? Look, Bennedict Mathurin had twenty-three off the bench, Garland and Kawhi both had twenty-one, and it still wasn't enough because this team cannot close. They had every chance to put Golden State away and just didn't. And now their first-round pick — which belongs to Oklahoma City — lands in the lottery. So the Thunder get rewarded for the Clippers choking. That's brutal. The Warriors move on to face the Suns on Friday for the right to play OKC in round one. In the other play-in game, Philly handled Orlando one oh nine to ninety-seven, and they did it without Joel Embiid, who's out after emergency appendix surgery. Tyrese Maxey was phenomenal — thirty-one points, including eleven in the fourth quarter. He had a stretch of seven straight that turned a tight game into a blowout. VJ Edgecombe put up nineteen and eleven, Drummond had a double-double, and honestly? Philly looked locked in. Orlando couldn't get anything going outside of Desmond Bane, who dropped thirty-four on ten of sixteen shooting, but Paolo only had eighteen and Franz had twelve. Not enough. The Sixers grab the seven seed and open against Boston on Saturday. Good luck with that. Now the full playoff picture is taking shape. In the East, you've got Detroit as the one seed waiting on the Magic-Hornets winner Friday, Boston-Philly starts Saturday, Cleveland-Toronto, and Knicks-Hawks. Out West, it's OKC waiting on Friday's Warriors-Suns game, San Antonio-Portland, Denver-Minnesota, and — yes — the Lakers as the four seed against the Houston Rockets. I'll have plenty more on that series as we get closer. Trust me. Let's pivot to the NFL because draft week is HERE. One week from tonight, Round One kicks off in Pittsburgh, and the rumor mill is running hot. The Cowboys are reportedly the most likely team to trade up, per Ian Rapoport. Dallas has two first-rounders — picks twelve and twenty — after shipping Micah Parsons to Green Bay before last season. And they need to use that capital wisely because their defense was historically bad. Thirty point one points allowed per game, dead last in the league. Rueben Bain Jr., Akeem Mesidor, and Sonny Styles are the names to watch. Jerry Jones needs a game-wrecker on that side of the ball yesterday. The Dexter Lawrence trade saga in New York is getting uglier by the day. The three-time Pro Bowler wants out. He hasn't shown up to the offseason program, extension talks hit an impasse, and reports say a new contract won't even fix it — he wants gone. The Chargers and Cowboys are reportedly circling. Jim Harbaugh would love a six-four, three-forty interior monster on that defensive line. And LA has the cap space to give Lawrence whatever he wants. This one feels like it's heading toward a trade before draft night. Quick hit — Aaron Rodgers is apparently fifty-fifty on coming back to Pittsburgh. He went ten and seven last year and made the playoffs on a one-year deal. If he doesn't commit before the draft, don't be surprised if the Steelers grab a rookie QB early. Adam Schefter floated Ty Simpson as a possibility. And the Russini-Vrabel story is still lingering. Dianna Russini resigned from The Athletic on Tuesday after those photos surfaced of her and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel at an Arizona resort before the league meetings. Both are married. Both denied wrongdoing. Vrabel won Coach of the Year after going fourteen and three, but as multiple people have pointed out — it's going to be real hard to tell your locker room to avoid distractions when this is hanging over your head. This story isn't going away. Alright, Hangover Take time. I want to talk about the Clippers for a second. Not last night's loss specifically, but what this franchise has become. They traded away their future for Kawhi, built around him for years, and now they're handing a lottery pick to the Thunder — the team that literally does not need any more draft assets. OKC already has the best young core in basketball, and now they're getting gifted even more ammunition because the Clippers can't get out of their own way. At some point you have to ask — is there a more cursed franchise in professional sports? Every move they make somehow ends up benefiting someone else. It's like they exist to make other teams better. I'm not even trying to be mean. It's just the truth. If you're a Clippers fan, I genuinely don't know what you're holding onto at this point. That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.