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Steph Curry scored 35 points to lead the Warriors past the Clippers in a dramatic play-in comeback, while the Sixers handled Orlando without Embiid and LaMelo Ball's flagrant foul on Bam Adebayo sparked controversy. The NFL Draft is a week away with
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Steph Curry is thirty-eight years old, dropped thirty-five points last night, and hit the go-ahead three with fifty seconds left. If you're still debating whether he's the greatest shooter ever, I genuinely don't know what to tell you.
Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar.
Let's start in San Francisco — or technically the Chase Center — because last night's Warriors-Clippers play-in game was everything. Golden State trailed by thirteen in the fourth quarter. Thirteen. Against a Clippers team that clawed from a six and twenty-one start all the way to forty-two and forty on the season. And Steph Curry just said nah, we're not going home tonight. He scored twenty-seven of his thirty-five points in the second half, knocked down seven threes, and drilled the dagger — a pull-up three with fifty point four seconds left to break a tie. That shot had no business going in. Contested, off-balance, vintage Curry. And honestly the unsung hero was Al Horford, who hit four threes in the fourth quarter alone. Al Horford! The man is practically eligible for AARP and he's out there splashing corner threes in an elimination game. Draymond Green tweaked his knee during the game, came back, and made the two biggest defensive plays down the stretch to ice it. That core is held together with duct tape and championship DNA. The Warriors now play the Suns on Friday for the right to face OKC in the first round. The Clippers' season is done, and their first-round pick goes to the Thunder because of the Paul George trade. So OKC gets stronger no matter what. Fun league.
Over in the East, the Sixers handled Orlando one oh nine to ninety-seven without Joel Embiid, who had an emergency appendectomy and just got back to the team yesterday. He surprised his teammates in the locker room and watched from the bench in street clothes. Tyrese Maxey took over in the fourth quarter and finished with thirty-one. The rookie V.J. Edgecombe had himself a night — nineteen points and eleven rebounds, a double-double in a play-in game as a first-year guy. Andre Drummond filled the Embiid void with fourteen and ten off the bench. Desmond Bane tried to keep Orlando in it with thirty-four, but it wasn't enough. Philly earns the seven seed and gets Boston in round one. Good luck with that.
Now — the LaMelo Ball situation. This is the story everyone's talking about. Tuesday night, Hornets beat the Heat one twenty-seven to one twenty-six in overtime. Ball finished with thirty points and hit the go-ahead layup with four seconds left. Great moment. But it's completely overshadowed by a flagrant foul on Bam Adebayo that sent Bam crashing to the floor. He needed help getting up and had to walk to the locker room. The league reviewed it, hit Ball with a Flagrant Two, fined him thirty-five grand, then tacked on another twenty-five K for dropping profanity during a live postgame interview. Sixty thousand dollars total. Erik Spoelstra was livid after the game, said Ball should've been thrown out for that play. And look — I get LaMelo's a showman, he plays with an edge, but that play on Bam was reckless. You can't be tripping guys and creating injury risk in an elimination game. The fact that there's no suspension feels light. Charlotte won, Ball's moving on, but this is gonna follow him.
Deni Avdija and the Trail Blazers also punched their ticket, beating the Suns to earn Portland's first postseason appearance since twenty twenty-one. That's a franchise that's been in the wilderness for a while, so good for them.
Switching to the NFL — we're one week out from the draft in Pittsburgh. Round one is April twenty-third. Fernando Mendoza is the consensus number one pick to the Raiders, and he's not even going to Pittsburgh — he'll be watching from Miami with family. The Raiders' GM John Spytek admitted they're getting trade calls for the top pick but basically said they're not moving. The biggest non-draft NFL story right now is the Dexter Lawrence mess in New York. Contract talks between Lawrence and the Giants have collapsed. He's requested a trade. The sides are far apart despite his four-year ninety million dollar deal running through twenty twenty-seven. Multiple teams have expressed interest, but the Giants don't view the draft as a deadline. This could drag on all summer.
Also keep an eye on Dallas — the Cowboys keep popping up in trade-up conversations. And the Steelers are hosting Penn State QB Drew Allar for a top thirty visit today.
Here's my Hangover Take. The Clippers' season ending means Oklahoma City just won the lottery without playing a single game. They get the Clippers' first-round pick from the Paul George trade, and now they'll either face the Warriors or the Suns in round one — both play-in teams, both banged up, both running on fumes. OKC is the most terrifying team in basketball right now and nobody's talking about them because Steph keeps doing Steph things. The Thunder are going to sleepwalk to the Western Conference Finals while everyone else beats each other up. Mark it down. They're my pick to come out of the West.
That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.