The Warriors dynasty ended the only way it could have: in a play-in game, down 17 in the fourth quarter, with Draymond Green getting ejected while Devin Booker had to be physically restrained, and Stephen Curry — 38 years old, the greatest shooter alive — standing at the line having gone 4-for-16 from the field. That’s not a bad night. That’s a portrait.
Phoenix won 111-96, and the scoreline flatters nobody. Golden State coughed up 9 turnovers in the first quarter alone, shot 30 percent in that stretch, and trailed 33-15 before the building had even warmed up. They rallied to make it a game by halftime — credit them that — and then spent the third quarter pretending the body could still take the punches. It couldn’t. That box score reads like a confession: 20 total turnovers, 30 points surrendered off them, Jalen Green dropping 36 on 14-of-20 shooting including 8-of-14 from three. Green looked like Curry in 2016. That comparison is not accidental.
Two days earlier, Curry had put up 35 efficient points against the Clippers and kept Golden State’s season alive. That version of him — locked in, pulling up from the logo, making it look insulting — is still in there. That contrast between Tuesday and Thursday doesn’t tell you Curry is finished. It tells you everything about what was being asked of him, and for how long, and with what around him.
Brandin Podziemski led the Warriors with 23 points and 10 rebounds. He’s 22. He played hard and it didn’t matter, which is its own kind of tragedy for a kid who deserves better than inheriting a crater.
Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors have been eliminated from playoff contention ❌
Was this Golden State's last ride? pic.twitter.com/43DHjlNdxs
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 18, 2026
Four titles, six Finals in eight years, a run that bent the entire league toward three-point volume and switchable wings — that dynasty didn’t end Thursday. It ended when Klay Thompson walked out the door in 2024. What happened at the Mortgage Matchup Center was the administrative close on something that had already been settled. You know how in movies the villain keeps getting up after they’re clearly beaten, every lurch more desperate than the last? This team has been in that hallway for two years.
Draymond fouled out with 1:06 left and the game at 111-94, and then — because he is constitutionally incapable of leaving a stage quietly — he and Booker got into it, both were ejected simultaneously, and Booker had to be held back while Draymond egged the Phoenix crowd on and mimicked the ejection gesture like he was taking a curtain call. At that moment, down nearly 20 with 60 seconds left in a play-in elimination, Draymond was performing. Whether that’s admirable or exhausting probably says something about which generation you belong to.
Steve Kerr’s contract expired with the final buzzer. He told reporters he’d need a week or two to decide, and confirmed he wouldn’t coach another franchise — Golden State or done. That particular sentence deserves to sit alone for a moment.
Curry, asked about his future after the game, said: “Multiple for sure. That’s more than one? Yes. Perfect.” He’s under contract through 2026-27, and nothing about his body or his game suggests he can’t still be a force. That dynasty isn’t him. He outlasted it. Now the question is whether the Warriors rebuild fast enough to give those remaining seasons any stakes — or whether Curry spends his late thirties being the best player on a 37-45 team in a perpetual flirtation with the play-in.
That 37-45 record, by the way: Golden State’s first losing season since the COVID bubble year, and their first genuinely bad season since 2011 — back when Curry was still a young guard who shot nicely and didn’t quite impose himself yet. Fifteen years of relevance, most of it unprecedented. And then a play-in loss in Phoenix, 9 first-quarter turnovers, and Draymond working the crowd on his way out.
The eulogy writes itself. The dynasties that end with a quiet exit get elegies. The ones that end like this get something more honest.
