ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors rekindled their rivalry with the Los Angeles Clippers in front of another national TV audience tonight.
David Lee would not start, but would come off the bench. Glen Davis aka “Big Baby” was out for the Clippers. Justin Holiday was listed as “inactive”.
FIRST QUARTER
For once, Klay Thompson did not get off to a hot start, as he lost J.J. Redick a couple times, possibly underestimating the wily veteran’s ability to handle the rock, and picked up two fouls relatively early. However, Leandro Barbosa came in and played well, getting off to a good start with his usual “blur” layup.
Meanwhile, Draymond Green held Blake Griffin to very few touches out of the gate, sticking his leg out on one early offense play as Griffin tried to back Green up for position. Green was like a rooted tree and Griffin could gain no advantage.
Stephen Curry had a five-point play in that he hit a three-ball, then stole the inbounds for a left-handed layup high off the backboard. That put the Warriors up early, 12-9, with 5:40 to play. Andrew Bogut, who had gotten a dunk from the extra pass the Dubs have been doing more and more (assist Harrison Barnes), led everyone with 7 early rebounds.
Then came a little razzle-dazzle from Curry, with a high-arcing finger-roll that Bogut caught and slammed home to put Golden State up, 21-11, with 3:36 to go:
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Lee came in to cheers from #Roaracle with about three minutes to go, but missed his first shot, a blown layup with his weaker right hand on a touchdown pass attempt from Bogut.
The first quarter ended with the Warriors up, 30-20. Bogut had 9 boards. The Clippers’ entire team combined for 8 rebounds.
SECOND QUARTER
The bench unit consisting of Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Barbosa, Lee, and Ezeli played a bit sloppy. Iguodala had two turnovers in succession with bad interior passes to Lee then Ezeli.
Bogut returned at the 7:18 mark with the Warriors up 38-29, after DeAndre Jordan smashed an alley oop beating Ezeli down the floor after Ezeli had turned it over under the basket, taking too much time to make a move as Redick slapped the ball away.
The rest of the quarter featured the Warriors in full throttle.
Green forced Chris Paul into a turnover, showing Green’s versatility. Thompson hit a three, then Curry found himself with Jordan guarding him on the perimeter. Curry stepped back and nailed a three in front of Jordan.
Green found Thompson on a break, with Klay swinging his arm in celebration and the Warriors up 60-37 at that point with 1:55 to go in the quarter. Green added another three after that.
The Warriors’ barrage left them up at the half, 65-42. Curry collected 15 points on 3-for-5 from downtown, Green had 12 on 2-for-3 from beyond the arc, and Thompson added 10 on 2-for-2 from three-point land. Golden State shot at a 67.5% clip from the field and 69.2% from threes. Despite the 10 turnovers, they were ahead on the boards, 21-13.
Meanwhile, Paul was 0-for-5 from the floor and Griffin had no rebounds in 14 minutes of play. The two Clippers superstars were a combined 2-for-13 from the field with just 4 points.
THIRD QUARTER
In the third, Golden State held serve and actually outscored the Clippers 37-33, thanks to a couple by Green, prompting him to stick out his tongue at close range to Griffin — Green later told Bay Area News Group Diamond Leung that the tongue was directed at former teammate Jermaine O’Neal, who was sitting courtside:
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Curry collected his fourth personal foul with 7:11 to go and the Warriors up, 79-52, and sat for most of the quarter. The Thompson-versus-Paul matchup was gritty, but didn’t feature any fireworks.
But Golden State head coach Steve Kerr did, picking up a technical as things weren’t going the Warriors’ way on a few sequences in a row. The Warriors were still up by a lot, 84-60, but associate head coach Alvin Gentry held him back as Kerr blurted out, “That’s f______ bull____!!”
Much of #DubNation in Oracle and on Twitter lauded Kerr’s passion. 95.7 radio man Damon Bruce tweeted that he had fallen in love with Kerr at that moment.
The rest of the quarter featured an alley-oop to Shaun Livingston out of a timeout and an Iguodala three with 13 seconds to go that made the end-of-quarter score 102-75. That’s right, the Dubs had broken the 100 barrier with still another quarter to play.
FOURTH QUARTER
In the fourth, Golden State committed some careless turnovers. Brandon Rush finally made an appearance with 7:23 to go and the Warriors up, 108-89, but soon checked out because the lead had dwindled down to as few as 14 points.
Livingston was in, instead of Iguoala, who had been the cause of four turnovers, although he was only charged with one. Barnes even subbed in for Bogut, as Clippers head coach seemed to have conceded defeat by keeping Griffin, Jordan, and Paul on the bench.
But the Warriors put the game away as Curry hit a three on Clippers backup point guard Jared Cunningham and made an and-one spinning around Cunningham. Barnes added to the salvo with a three and a Livingston alley-oop from Curry all but killed off the Clippers.
Still, Livingston would commit 20th turnover and even more sloppiness during garbage time resulted in a team total of 23 turnovers, but that was a small blemish in comparison to the dominance Golden State displayed over the Clippers.
Green finished with 24 points on 4-for-8 from downtown to go along with 8 rebounds and 4 assists, Thompson added 19 on 3-for-4 on treys, Bogut added 14 rebounds and 5 assists, and Curry led all scorers with 28 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 7 assists, 4-for-8 from downtown as well.
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