STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — Two nights after Klay Thompson scored 60 points en route to a blowout of the Pacers at Oracle, the Golden State Warriors (18-3) were in LA to face the Los Angeles Clippers (16-6).
Q1: Running Away
The first quarter was choppy for both teams as fouls slowed down the game out of the gate. Chris Paul got an early technical after losing the ball on a dribble against Draymond Green, while Thompson and Kevin Durant opened up with missed threes.
Durant even had a missed dunk, hitting the rim in the front as Zaza Pachulia had done in the previous game.
The Warriors got two dunks in transition as a Pachulia outlet led to Stephen Curry running the break, which led to Durant streaking in for a jam:
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But the Clippers struck back in the person of DeAndre Jordan, who got two slam dunks inside, one on a putback. Green wasn’t happy with the Warriors’ defense on one of them:
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Golden State got the last word though, as Klay and Blake Griffin traded silly turnovers, and Curry found Durant who fed Draymond for a dunk down the right side, giving the Warriors an 11-10 lead with 6:28 remaining as Los Angeles head coach Doc Rivers took a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Thompson drove and found Zaza at the rim, then after Griffin spun inside on Green but fired too hard off the board, the Warriors were on the run again and Curry dissected the Clippers’ defense on a pick-and-roll with Pachulia, finding Zaza for another easy bucket.
The Warriors were off to the races, speeding up the pace of the game, as Steph went to Draymond inside, who fired back to Klay beyond the arc for three more, then after Griffin’s alarmingly high fifth turnover of the game, losing the ball in the paint again to Grren, Curry went coast-to-coast for the layup.
Paul, who had early pulled up from deep over Draymond for three, tried it again but back-rimmed, and Andre Iguodala ran the break to find Green who got the ball to Steph from the left arc. He stepped on the line, but made the shot, then gave a shimmy, which happened to be right in front of Kerr:
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Griffin missed again inside, Iguodala stole the ball from Marreese Speights, and got the ball ahead to Curry for another bucket,, and Golden State took a 24-13 lead with 3:08 to play.
Rivers took a quick twenty-second timeout, but Draymond hit a three, Speights answered inside after Curry stole the baseline inbound but missed a dagger three attempt, then Curry dismantled the LA defense once more, going with a look-away fake pass, plus the harm as Speights trampled Steph in the process.
After a timeout by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Curry hit the “and-one”, the Clippers continued to find a lid on the rim, and Ian Clark hit a layup via a Durant drive and a kick-out to David West. Clark also got fouled, giving Golden State a whopping 35-15 lead with under a minute to go.
Austin Rivers drove and drew a shooting foul, but Clark answered again, and Speights put back a missed attack by Rivers.
Durant missed a runner at the buzzer and the Warriors had a 37-19 lead after the first period.
Curry led all scorers with 12 points in the opening frame. The Clips had 9 turnovers to the Warriors’ 7 steals.
Q2: Draymond To The Rescue
Jamal Crawford did what he could to try and spark the Clippers, but after a made jumper, J.J. Redick, who went scoreless in the first quarter, missed up top over Shaun Livingston and Klay came back with a dribble-and-pop from the left elbow with Crawford draped all over him.
Crawford couldn’t counter, Thompson got his miss, outlet to Livingston, and “Sdot” ran the break, finding Iguodala on a right-to-left pass for a reverse jam:
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“Doc” called another timeout as the Warriors widened their lead to 41-21 with 9:53 left.
Out of the timeout, Draymond hit a bail-out triple at the shot clock buzzer, then Jordan hit a reverse slam, but “KD” countered with a big step past Griffin for a layup down the right side.
Rivers hit a floater, then got fouled and made two throws, then after Livingston lost the ball trying to go up for a jumper over Jordan, DeAndre missed at the other end and Griffin flew in for a dunk over Green.
Kerr called a twenty-second timeout as the Clippers cut the lead to 48-37 with 4:53 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Curry cut, got the layup, and the harm…
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…but Crawford stayed hot and answered with a trey.
Durant continued his cold shooting, missing a one-legged fade over Paul, then Crawford up-faked Iguodala to attack the paint, missed the runner, but Jordan was there for a two-hand dunk put-back.
Iguodala then soared in for a double-clutch jam:
👀 @CSNAuthentic pic.twitter.com/b6EhIfdWHa
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) December 8, 2016
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However, the Clippers answered back with two straight buckets after KD missed again, this time from three to bring the Dubs’ atrocious long-range shooting down to 3-for-10.
Paul hit two straight jumpers and, all of a sudden, the Clips were back to within 53-46.
Iguodala and Rivers exchanged missed triples, then Jordan made a spectacular block of Clark’s give-and-go with Draymond, but Green followed the play up as the Clippers fell asleep, and got an easy putback off the board.
After another timeout, Draymond missed a three, but Klay got the offensive rebound, faked a step-back, drove in, Green cut, and Thompson fed him for the slashing smash:
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) December 8, 2016
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Draymond hit another three from the right corner to close out the half as teams traded free throws and Curry missed a three-quarter-court heave, narrowly.
Golden State took at 62-49 lead into halftime. Curry had 15 points, but Green filled in for the poor shooting from distance with 3-for-4 downtown, and also added 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
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