NBA Playoffs: Stephen Curry returns with a vengeance to save the Warriors

Hype-man Klay Thompson is your best basketball friend. He’ll take care of things while you’re hurt and tend to what needs tending -- then when you return he’ll have your back, making sure everyone knows you ARE back.

Stephen Curry’s ludicrous 17-point overtime performance will be plastered everywhere today -- it deserves to be. Far too many will overlook Klay’s critical contribution as BFF. Not anymore.

Good morning! Let’s basketball.

HEAVENLY FURY: Stephen Curry is, uh, back. As he told the Portland crowd in overtime. As he was scoring 17 points. Seventeen points, in overtime. An NBA record for the regular season, the postseason, any damn season. Stephen Curry started 0-for-9 from three, and the Blazers matched the Warriors bucket for bucket in regulation. C.J. McCollum was on one. Damian Lillard was ON one. Steph Curry is on something else entirely. There are no words, not even from Charles Barkley. That Bradley Cooper movie Limitless? Actually a documentary about Steph Curry. Warriors win 132-125.

It was a battle of two of the league’s best point guards, and Lillard was holding his own -- maybe even outplaying the MVP -- through four quarters in Curry’s return to action.

Then overtime happened, and Curry entered another stratosphere. He scored the first 12 Warriors points in OT and an NBA record 17 in the extra quarter on his way to 40 points as the Warriors beat the Blazers, 132-125, to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. The Warriors will have a chance to close it out on Wednesday in Oakland -- and with Curry back and in full force, they appear ready to do so.

The player coming off the greatest shooting season in NBA history missed his first nine three-point attempts. Nine! By his season average, he should’ve hit about four. Instead, he missed all nine, and Blazers-Warriors was en route to overtime instead of a double-digit Golden State victory in regulation.

Curry was doing human things. Humans have flawed, injury-prone limbs. A human unable to play basketball for a few weeks might lose some of the muscle memory required to throw a basketball through a hoop. A human’s performance might spontaneously wane. A human might experience self-doubt.

Stephen Curry was somewhat laboring through his return following an extended absence after a knee injury. Sure he scored 23 points in regulation and flashed his classic flair around the rim, but he just wasn’t the same Steph Curry. He made just 2-of-13 three-point attempts during regulation, with a number of shots way off.

Then came an overtime performance for the ages.

The win gave the Warriors a 3-1 series lead. With Curry returning to the court and looking like his old self, the Warriors appear primed to return to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year.

Damian Lillard had 36 points and and C.J. McCollum added 24 in the loss as the Blazers gave up a game they could have won.

So he let referee Scott Foster know it, yelling at Foster as the next play developed. Foster wasn’t having it. He stopped the play to ring Livingston up with a technical foul. But he didn’t stop there; Foster had a quick trigger and whistled Livingston for another tech just seconds after the first, ejecting him from the game.

And he did it with gusto, throwing Livingston out of the game like he was calling a third strike a la Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun. Here’s the missed foul:

The Heat led 25-21 after the first quarter and ended the half on a 9-0 run to end the second quarter by holding the Raptors scoreless over the final 4:03. They led 44-35 thanks to a big half from Wade, who netted 15 points. Miami went cold to start the third quarter, though, scoring only four points in the first seven minutes as the Raptors outscored the Heat 27-16 in the frame to take a 62-60 lead.

Game 5 is in Toronto on Wednesday.

What in the world!

The Heat-Raptors series is dragging on for so long. Heck, the game went into overtime much to the chagrin of everyone watching it. Everyone’s mind was already on the Warriors-Blazers game.

GET WILD, GET CRAZY. White people, y’all.

Stephen Curry is back. The two-time MVP will return from his knee injury for the Warriors’ Game 4 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, the Warriors confirmed Steve Kerr said he would indeed play assuming no setbacks during pregame warmups, and there were no setbacks.

Cury will not start, but he will not be on a minutes limit, Kerr said.

Lillard was fantastic Saturday night. He was launching three-pointers off the dribble from 28 feet and breaking the Golden State down off the dribble, too.

The question for the Warriors will be: can they figure out a way to slow down Lillard. If they can, then they should have no problem heading back home to Golden State up 3-1. If once again they struggle then perhaps Portland can force Curry back to the court quicker than he’d like.

Dwyane Wade is catching flack for continuing to warm up against the Raptors on Saturday while shooting during the singing of “O Canada.” Wade says he was just doing his job by making sure he was ready, others are upset that he couldn’t pause his warm up to respect the anthem while he was in Canada. It’s a big dumb mess and Wade isn’t exactly apologizing.

Does Wade need to apologize? Perhaps, but words are hollow. Instead this needs to be about punishment. Wade needs to be taught about the proud heritage of our neighbors up north. Here are a few suggestions:

Further studies showed that the injury is serious enough to demand time off. Whiteside is currently listed as day-by-day, but he could miss significant time in this series and possibly beyond.