Mar. 29—That distinctive combination (alongside quirky Klay Thompson) has helped propel the Golden State Warriors to four NBA championships and six trips to the Finals in the past eight seasons. Now, as the Warriors alternately wobble and surge while chasing a playoff berth, they need this contrasting Curry-Green dynamic more than ever.

Boy, did they need it Tuesday night.

Let’s be honest: The Warriors blew Sunday’s game against Minnesota (thanks mostly to a Green gaffe) and played like a G-League team in the first half Tuesday against New Orleans. They were beating themselves with careless turnovers, foolish shot selection, lazy defense.

Four days after taking Joel Embiid’s best shot, beating Philadelphia and unmistakably building momentum, the Warriors suddenly looked ready to implode. They were staring at the shocking possibility of two consecutive losses at Chase Center, in the middle of a crazy-crowded Western Conference playoff race.

Then Green’s fire and Curry’s poise abruptly changed the equation. The Warriors trailed the Pelicans by 17 points at halftime and won by 11 — 120-109. Golden State outscored New Orleans by the absurd total of 74-46 in the second half.

They won because Green and Curry wouldn’t let them lose.

“Steph and Draymond have been doing it for, what, a decade?” said Pelicans head coach Willie Green, a former Warriors assistant. “They understand chemistry, they understand the moment. To them this is a ramp-up to the playoffs, and we saw that in the fourth quarter.”

Draymond Green’s impact on the game was obvious in many ways. He hip-checked Brandon Ingram on a second- quarter play (drawing a flagrant foul), responded when Ingram expressed his displeasure (drawing half of a double technical) and then got tangled up with Herb Jones on a subsequent drive to the basket.

All the while, Green radiated urgency — clapping loudly, shouting incessantly, playing demonstratively. He provided the energy his teammates needed, to remind them losing wasn’t an acceptable option.

Curry showed his understanding of the stakes in a different way. He did insert himself in one of the skirmishes, uncharacteristically, but mostly he went about his Steph-gonna-Steph business, scurrying around the court as only he can.

Curry finished with 39 points, eight assists and eight rebounds. He played like a man consumed with avoiding the play-in tournament.

“It’s definitely in his eyes, his demeanor,” Green said of his longtime teammate. “He’s not going to be loud about it, but you know how to follow it. When I turned it up a notch, he turned it up another two notches and then we followed him. ...

“He was locked in and no one was stopping him.”

This is not exactly new stuff for Curry, but it somehow felt different Tuesday night. It felt like he grasped the larger context in the second half, the potentially dire postseason consequences if the Warriors lost to one of their closest pursuers in the West.

Green, similarly, knew the bigger picture. He played a big role in Sunday’s late meltdown against the Timberwolves, throwing a pass Kyle Anderson deflected and stole when Green could have 1) thrown a bounce pass instead or 2) held the ball and let the T-Wolves foul him (they had a foul to give before reaching the bonus).

That turnover led to a Karl-Anthony Towns 3-pointer that handed the Warriors a costly loss and nearly spilled into their next game.

But then Green channeled the frustration in his uniquely constructive way. Fans mostly will remember his theatrics Tuesday night, but they also should remember his stat line: eight points, 13 assists, six rebounds. The Warriors outscored New Orleans by 26 points during Green’s 33 minutes on the court.

“Draymond willed us to victory tonight,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “I mean, just his intensity and his frustration early with the way we were playing. He was mad at the world, yelling at everybody — their bench, our bench, me. And frankly we all deserved it. That first half was as poor a half as we’ve played all year.”

Asked his real-time reaction when Green shouted at him — Kerr had the audacity to remove Green from the game after his back-toback confrontations — Kerr replied, “I’m liking it because I’ve seen this movie before. We do some crazy stuff out there — we get sideways and too casual with the ball — and without Draymond’s fire and competitiveness, this thing doesn’t tie together.”

Green and Curry ultimately did tie it together Tuesday, just in time to save their team from a terrible loss. They now stand 40-37, momentarily in the No. 6 spot in the wild West — only one game behind No. 4 Phoenix but only a halfgame ahead of No. 7 Minnesota and just two games ahead of the No. 9 Lakers.

Given this logjam, and to achieve their goal of avoiding the play-in tourney, the Warriors realistically need to win their final two games at Chase (against San Antonio and Oklahoma City) and snag one win in their three road games (at Denver, Sacramento and Portland).

That would leave them 43-39 and probably in the top six.

For all practical purposes, these final two weeks of the regular season already feel like the playoffs. Green acknowledged as much after his team’s frantic second-half comeback, sending the Pelicans trudging away in frustration.

“You have to take care of home court,” Green said. “We gave one away last game, and me in particular. You can’t lose two in a row at home, especially at this time of year.”

The Warriors almost did exactly that, but Green and Curry wouldn’t let them.