The Warriors faced their biggest deficit of the game for 1.1 seconds and 44 feet of the court.
Steph Curry, down 17 as Orlando shot the lights out, took a dribble and launched a heave from beyond halfcourt, swishing in a miracle at the end of the first half.
That was one of Curry’s 12 3-pointers and tipped off a 40-14 Warriors run that flipped the game. Behind Curry’s best game of the year, the Warriors (32-27) came back for a TK-TK win over the Magic to start their five-game road trip.
Curry dropped a season-high 56 points, his highest-scoring game since last February’s 60-bomb in Atlanta. He’s registered three 50-point games since turning 35 years old, the most all-time. He needed just 34 minutes to do it, going 16-for-25 from the field and 12-for-19 from deep while sinking all 12 of his foul shots.
“For us to win this game, it obviously took all those points, but it took a collective resilience that I love that we showed tonight,” Curry said in his on-court interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. “It would’ve been easy to lay down in the first game of a road trip down (17), but we all clawed back.”
The Warriors rode Curry’s 16-point second quarter, 22-point third and crunch-time flurry to their fifth straight victory. Quinten Post also chipped in a crucial 18 points off the bench.
Paolo Banchero finished with 41 points, but Curry was the one getting M-V-P chants at the end of the game in his Kia Center.
It looked like the type of game the Warriors would’ve had no chance coming back in. They trailed by double digits for almost the entire first half and Banchero hit 10 of his 12 shots to score 24 first-half points. The Magic, the worst jump shooting team in the league, were hitting everything; they shot 83.3% in the first quarter, the highest mark of a Warriors opponent all year.
But these Warriors are so much better than the ones from earlier this season. They’re invigorated, with a new life thanks to the addition of Jimmy Butler.
Butler struggled offensively, but Curry more than picked him up. Butler may have changed Golden State’s season, but the Warriors are still undoubtedly Curry’s team.
As Banchero dominated every matchup the Warriors threw at him — Moses Moody, Kevin Knox, Buddy Hield, zones — Curry scored 16 points in the second quarter to keep the Warriors in it. He pulled up from the logo, lifting the Warriors as his teammates misfired from deep.
Curry’s halfcourt shot at the end of the half made him 5-for-7 from deep. The rest of the Warriors were 3-for-16 at that point and Butler was a -21 in the box score.
The Warriors inserted Post into the lineup to start the second half, and he poured in 10 quick points. The move allowed Draymond Green to slow down Banchero, who missed six straight shots.
Curry rattled home a shooter’s-touch 3 that grazed the top of the backboard and kept cooking. He drained his eighth 3 by denying a screen and going behind the back on the left wing. Then he sank No. 9 in transition on the very next possession, breaking out the putting celebration as Orlando called timeout.
When Curry returned from his regularly scheduled rest to begin the fourth quarter, the Warriors led by 13 after more solid Post minutes. With over six minutes left, he had a chance to flirt with Klay Thompson’s single-game record of 14 3s.
With the Magic inching within six, Curry poured in his 10th triple in a two-man game with Post. With so much spacing cleared out on one side of the court, the Magic couldn’t double-team Curry.
His 11th came from 28 feet, but Wendell Carter Jr. answered. He tried another, but rimmed out on a catch-and-shoot try that he fired as soon as he got his hands on the leather. Then he beat the shot clock with a reload try for his 12th.
Curry threw both hands in the air after what ended up being the dagger. The Warriors needed every single one of them. And Curry deserved to snag the game ball on his way off the court.
“Very very special, just love to score the basketball, nice to have these and soak it all in,” Curry said.