Golden State's Real Follow-Up
The picture from this game is simple enough to keep in your head: Stephen Curry catches fire late, Kawhi Leonard stops finding air late, and suddenly a 13-point fourth-quarter hole becomes a 126-121 Warriors win. That is not a full offensive clearance. It is one closing sequence worth tracking.
Curry scored 35, with 27 of those points arriving in the second half. Al Horford added four 3-pointers. Those facts matter, but they matter as floor shape, not as mythology. Golden State did not reveal some brand-new identity here. The Warriors found a late game that looked playable: Curry bending the end of the night with shotmaking while the defense kept Leonard scoreless through almost the entire fourth quarter, until the final 16 seconds. You can see the outline. One side creates just enough separation with the ball. The other side erases just enough of the opponent's clean closing space.
That is why the next watch item should stay narrow. Do not turn one comeback into a giant statement about everything Golden State can be. Watch whether the Warriors can reproduce that same closing geometry again: Curry as the late possession answer, and a defense that can keep a premier scorer from getting comfortable when the floor shrinks. If that pairing shows up again, then the story grows. If it does not, this stays what it is now: a brilliant finish, not a full verdict.