With 3.4 seconds left, Stephen Curry waved his arms to get the Chase Center crowd on its feet.
The Golden State Warriors superstar was finally getting out of the play-in tournament, and it was time to celebrate. Curry scored 37 points, and Jimmy Butler delivered his best game for Golden State with 38 points to lift the Warriors past the Memphis Grizzlies 121-116 on Tuesday night.
"Just a sense of relief that we have something to look forward to now," Curry said.
For Curry and the Warriors, the win was their first in four play-in games. After two-plus months of chasing a postseason berth, the Warriors secured the seventh seed and a first-round date against the second-seeded Houston Rockets.
"We desperately needed to win this game and get four days [off]," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. "Our guys have basically been playing knockout games for about three weeks. One high-level game after another.
So to get this one, it took 83 games, but we are right where we want to be. Which is back in the playoffs and we got a chance."
Golden State will a familiar foe in Houston. This is the fifth time the franchises have faced each other in a playoff series. The Warriors won all four previous matchups, which took place between 2015 and 2019. Two of the series were in the Western Conference finals in 2015 and 2018, the latter which Golden State won in seven games.
"I was just telling Draymond [Green], 'It's wild,'" Curry said. "We've been in a playoff series in Houston for a decade. It's crazy to think about. I know this is a brand new version of the Rockets team, but we're excited for the challenge."
The Warriors went 3-2 against the Rockets in the regular season, with Houston winning their in-season NBA Cup matchup 91-90 on Dec. 11.
Houston's other win came at Chase Center on Apr. 6 when the Rockets came out aggressive and physical against a Warriors team that was finishing a four-game slate in six days after facing the Grizzlies, Lakers and Nuggets.
Butler has been playing on a different level since that loss to Houston. In two games that have basically been playoff-caliber contests against the LA Clippers on Sunday and the Grizzlies in the play-in game, Butler scored a combined total of 68 points while shooting an identical 12-of-20 from the field in each game.
He helped Golden State jump out to a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter Tuesday. Memphis came all the way back to take a 96-94 lead with 11 minutes remaining. Desmond Bane scored 30 points, and Ja Morant, who rolled his ankle in the third quarter but came back in the fourth, had 22 points for the Grizzlies.
But Curry scored 15 points in the final 7:02, including two 3-pointers in the span of 50 seconds with under two minutes left.
The Warriors were 0-3 in play-in games prior to Tuesday. They lost in their previous play-in game last season at Sacramento to see their season end.
"It's just a reminder that it's not guaranteed," Curry said of making the postseason. "I don't care how talented you are. You look around the league, you could argue more talented teams that we have that are on the outside looking in.
"So you appreciate the moments. That's why we have been talking for the last two months [about] how important it is to play meaningful games. And now we have a series that's going to be full of meaningful games."
And those will be with Butler, who is in "Playoff Jimmy" form with the true postseason beginning Sunday in Game 1 at Houston. This is why the Warriors traded for Butler, who has rejuvenated Curry, Green and Kerr and changed the trajectory of a team that was 25-26 on Feb. 6.
"Whenever I talk to Steph, Dray, Steve and Mike [Dunleavy Jr.] before I even got here, I was telling them I can help," Butler said. "Now, I don't know in what manner that I can help, but we're going to make the playoffs.
"I feel like I can give any team, for sure this one, a chance to win. And they believe it. I believe it."
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