INGLEWOOD — The action was proven. Tried under duress. Tested in the highest stakes. Automatic when the going got rough. The ultimate case of “break in case of emergency.”

With 50 seconds remaining in the Warriors’ play-in game against the host Clippers at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, Golden State’s two aging Hall of Famers went back to old reliable.

Steph Curry pitched the ball to Draymond Green, who set a screen and immediately tossed it back to Curry while picking off a defender.

Of course it worked, just as it did over four championship runs.Curry received the slight bit of daylight he needed to get a 3-point rainbow over two defenders and give the Warriors a lead they would not relinquish in the 126-121 victory.

“There was no timeout, no clipboard where we were drawing up a play — it was just us being in sync on what we were seeing,” Curry said.

The season will survive for at least one more game, a showdown in Phoenix for the right to be, in all likelihood, rolled by the Oklahoma City juggernaut that has succeeded Golden State as the league’s premier franchise.

Curry is 38 with a bad knee; Green is 36 with 14 years of jostling with bigs 50 pounds heavier than him, and could leave in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent. Their coach for the past 12 seasons is in the final year of his contract.

How many more glittering moments under the postseason spotlight will that trio have left?

Perhaps it was the final one, or maybe it is the start of the most improbable title run in NBA history.

Whether it leads to something or not, the triumph had Steve Kerr waxing poetic about its symbolic significance in a season that has often seen the proud franchise reduced to a punching bag by healthier teams.

No team in the league speaks about its past accomplishments quite as often as the Warriors. But can one blame them? Four titles, a decade of dominance and a playing style that revolutionized the sport.

For a magical fourth quarter, Kerr was teleported back to 2015, when the first of four titles was won. The Clipper crowd, comprised mostly of Warriors fans, even boomed the famous “WAAAAAAR-RIOOOOORS” chant in the second half.

“For one night, we’re us. We’re champions again,” Kerr said. “That may sound crazy to everybody out there. It’s a play-in game. I don’t care. Absolutely beautiful to watch.”

“Beautiful to watch” is often a term used to describe Curry’s shotmaking, and it was certainly a sight to behold on Wednesday as he scored 35 points to lead all participants.

But just as nostalgic as Curry’s long-range mastery, Green’s supreme effort on the defensive side of the ball brought back memories, too.

It was not just his back-to-back steals in the final minute to bury the Clippers’ tumultuous season six feet under, though that was something the Warriors did once during their heyday in 2019.

Green relished the opportunity to face — and vanquish — another old foe in Kawhi Leonard. Green rarely strayed more than a few feet from the Clippers superstar, fighting through screens rather than conceding a switch.

Again, how many more times will Green have a chance to test himself against one of the best of his generation on that kind of stage?

“It’s an honor to play against an all-time great like Kawhi Leonard, and as a competitor, you just want to be your best,” Green said. “It’s not every day that I get to go home and say I played Kawhi Leonard tonight.”

Green was being humble, too. It is not every night that visiting fans get to watch two of the all-time greats on an opposing team turn back the clock.

Whether it was for the final time, or just one of more to come in the future, the Warriors seemed to appreciate, more than any other party, the trip down memory lane as they dug in to gut out a throwback victory.

“To have the experience we’ve all had winning championships, it plays a big role in a night like tonight,” Green said. “Everything was on the table, and you’ve got to get it done by any means necessary. Tonight, we were able to lean on it.”