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Stephen Curry · Down by five points with 17 seconds left in a playoff game is a bad place to be — unless Steph Curry is on your side. In his first MVP and championship season, the Golden State Warriors icon flashed some of his patented brilliance in crunch time in Game 3 of a first-round postseason series against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Warriors trailed by 20 heading into the final period before mounting a furious rally, capped off by a pair of Curry 3-pointers in the final 11 seconds, with the first coming on the preceding Golden State possession. Now down three with nine seconds on the clock, Curry grabbed an inbound pass from Draymond Green in the corner before misfiring on a triple that would have tied the game on the spot. Luckily for fans of the nascent dynasty, Marreese Speights snared the offensive board and handed the ball back to Curry for another corner triple that broke the raucous home crowd’s heart. It marked the first time in 359 tries during the shot clock era that the Warriors won a game in which they trailed by 20 points entering the fourth, and they had Curry’s 40 points to thank for it. Curry also finished with five rebounds and nine assists in the thrilling 123-119 overtime victory on April 23, 2015 and his club finished off the sweep two nights later. · State of Mint