Curry Drops 41 in Overtime as Warriors Edge Short-Handed Magic 126-119 for Seventh Straight Win

With two minutes left in overtime and the game slipping away, Stephen Curry did what he has done so many times before. He took the ball, drove straight at the heart of the defence, and bent the night back Golden State's way.

The Warriors had led by 16 at half-time and still found themselves trailing 118-117 with 2:24 left in the extra period, after Tristan da Silva buried Orlando's 18th three-pointer of the night. Then Curry went to work. He drove for an eight-foot floater and was fouled by Wendell Carter Jr., calmly adding the free throw to put Golden State in front. Carter then missed two foul shots that could have tied it, and Curry came back down and hit almost the same shot again, this time without the foul, to make it 122-118. Yaxel Lendeborg finished the job with a dunk and two free throws, and the Warriors walked off with a 126-119 win and a seventh straight victory.

It was Curry's 41-point night, and it carried a little piece of history with it. It was his second 40-point game of the season and the 16th of his career since turning 35, which moved him past LeBron James for the most such games in NBA history. At 37, Curry is still the player Golden State turns to when a game needs winning, and on Saturday night he answered again.

The win was far from clean. The Warriors were beaten 24-3 on the offensive glass and outscored 26-10 off turnovers, numbers that usually spell defeat. What saved them was the supporting cast finding its moments. Brandin Podziemski chipped in 15 points and Georges Niang added 11, while Draymond Green barely scored at all — two points — but ran the game with 13 assists, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Lendeborg's 23 points, eight rebounds and three blocks gave Golden State the energy it needed when the starters were running on empty.

Orlando, for its part, refused to go quietly despite arriving desperately short-handed. Desmond Bane was out ill, Paolo Banchero was sidelined with a sprained right ankle, Jonathan Isaac was being managed for a left knee problem and Jalen Suggs was out with a bruised right knee. Still, the Magic roared back with a 37-point third quarter to erase that 16-point half-time deficit, and Jamal Cain's tip-in with 1.5 seconds left in regulation forced overtime on the 12th tie of the final period.

Franz Wagner led Orlando with 30 points and 11 assists for a double-double, da Silva hit five threes on his way to 19 points, and Carter finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. Anthony Black and Cain added 18 points apiece. It was not enough to stop a fourth straight defeat for the Magic, who fell to 2-7, while the Warriors improved to 7-3. But it was a reminder of why this Golden State side keeps finding ways to win: when the game gets tight and the shots get hard, the ball still finds its way to No. 30, and No. 30 still delivers.