Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard both have won multiple championships and been named Finals MVP. At the peak of their respective careers, they were in the conversation for best basketball player in the world. Now these two hall-of-fame-bound superstars will lead their teams against each other … in the Play-In Tournament.

Curry and Leonard are in similar situations. Both have maintained – or even improved upon – their normal level of production in recent seasons. But their teams have crumbled around them due to injury and trades, respectively.

Golden State surged to a 7-3 start in January and was closing in on the top six when the Warriors’ second-leading scorer, Jimmy Butler, went down for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles south in the state of California, the Los Angeles Clippers took a surprising turn. Despite flipping their season on its head – going on an NBA-best 17-6 run in the lead-up to the deadline to seemingly save their 6-21 start – the Clippers dealt their lead guard, James Harden, and starting centre, Ivica Zubac, in what appeared to be a future-focused pivot.

Curry and Leonard have individually prevailed through it all, and will now meet in the West’s 9-10 play-in matchup on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet+).

Leonard had arguably his best offensive season, posting career highs in points per game (27.9) and true shooting percentage (62.9). The two-time Finals MVP and former Raptors star also tied for the league lead with three game-winning shots.

And while Curry missed 27 games in February and March due to a right knee injury, he looked every bit the best shooter that’s ever lived in his return against the Houston Rockets, making 5-of-10 from deep in his signature, spectacular fashion. He’s shot 41.7 per cent on an average of nine three-point attempts over four games since coming back.

The winner of this game may only get the chance to play the Phoenix Suns, for the chance to face the buzzsaw that is the Oklahoma City Thunder, but there’s a bigger picture here. Curry is 38. Leonard is nearly 35, with a long history of significant knee injuries. We should appreciate every opportunity we get to watch these two all-time greats at the top of their game.

Here’s more on Wednesday’s matchup:

Season Series: Clippers lead 3-1

Oct. 28: Warriors 98, Clippers 79
Jan. 5: Clippers 103, Warriors 102
March 2: Clippers 114, Warriors 101
April 12: Clippers 115, Warriors 110

When the Clippers traded two of their top three players at the trade deadline, it’s safe to say it was more of a pivot than a strict sell off.

The returns of Darius Garland (for Harden) and Canadian Bennedict Mathurin (for Zubac) provides Los Angeles with two young, starting-level guards that still have higher ceilings. Garland already has two all-star appearances to his name. His ability to threaten defences both with a live dribble and high-level shot-making is everything that could be asked offensively from a lead guard. Still it feels like the 26-year-old could ascend higher.

The Montreal-born Mathurin is more of a straight scorer than an all-around creator like Garland, and his efficiency can wax and wane, but the 23-year-old wing can light up the scoreboard in a hurry. Mathurin scored 38 points in his third game with the Clippers. He’s proven he can perform on the big stage, too, with a game-high 27 points to lead the Pacers past the Thunder in Game 3 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

Between Leonard being as surgically efficient as ever and this dynamic backcourt pairing, the Clippers have an abundance of avenues to score.

The area they struggle most is in the paint – which is unsurprising, considering they dealt away their borderline all-star centre. The Clippers are bottom 10 in both rebounding percentage and opponent’s field goal percentage at the rim. Brook Lopez has always been an average rebounder at best, and the 38-year-old is grabbing fewer boards than ever before. The Clippers may need more than just threes from Lopez if they’re going to come out on top. However, the Warriors also have the same weakness.

Maybe now more than ever, the Warriors are dependant on Curry for success. Golden State went 24-19 with Curry and 13-26 without.

To be fair, Curry’s absence would drastically shift any team’s ecosystem. His skill set fundamentally alters the fabric of an offence. This is both because of his exceptional shooting and the way it makes defences react. He didn’t play enough games to qualify for the NBA’s new player gravity statistic this season, but it’s plain to see that his presence pulls defenders around the court and creates vast openings for teammates unlike anyone else.

Golden State’s offence scored 6.9 more points per 100 possessions and had a 4.6-per-cent increase in effective field goal percentage with Curry on the floor, 94th and 98th percentile marks league-wide, respectively (according to Cleaning the Glass). Two of the Warriors who stepped up most in Curry’s absence, Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos, saw jumps of 9.7 and 2.6 in their offensive rating, respectively, when playing alongside Curry.

Still, despite Curry whipping up functional offence, the Warriors also struggle to protect their rim and clean the glass. Like the Clippers they rank bottom 10 in rebounding percentage and opponents’ rim field goal percentage. The two teams have played each other close of late – including in their April 12 season finale – and could be primed for another thrilling, offence-first shootout.

X-Factor: Bennedict Mathurin, Clippers

Of course, Curry and Leonard easily have the most game-breaking potential in this matchup, but we’ve covered them enough here, and they don’t really fit the mould of an “X-factor.”

Mathurin does. As he showed multiple times in the Indiana Pacers’ Cinderella run to the NBA Finals last season, he has the ability to pop off and swing the outcome of a game at any time. From his historic performance off the bench in Game 3 of the Finals to pumping in 20 points over 12 minutes and change to steal Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals from the New York Knicks, the Montrealer certainly fits the category of “microwave scorer.”

If the Warriors opt to double Leonard and try to take the ball out of his hands, it’s easy to picture Mathurin stampeding down the lane and getting his game off in space as a result.

Also, a quick honourable mention to Charles Bassey, who started the season with the Warriors’ G League affiliate in Santa Cruz, Calif., traversed the league on 10-day contracts, then returned to Golden State and signed for the final five games of the regular season. He’s averaged 7.2 rebounds over that short stretch, more than any player currently on either team’s roster.

A monster game on the glass from Bassey would be a fun, and potentially impactful, twist.