Twenty-four hours after annihilating the Hornets at home, the Golden State Warriors (42-7) flew down the California coast to visit the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center.
The Warriors were without Draymond Green (left shoulder contusion suffered in the win), Zaza Pachulia (right shoulder strain), David West (left thumb non-displaced fracture), and Shaun Livingston (strained mid-back), who did not play last night and was a late scratch.
Golden State head coach Steve Kerr opted to match LA head coach Doc Rivers’ small lineup of Austin Rivers, Ray Felton, and J.J. Redick by starting rookie Patrick McCaw.
The Clippers were without Chris Paul (thumb surgery) and Brice Johnson (back).
Q1: Mix-And-Match
Golden State raced out to an early 6-0 lead thanks to three consecutive steals. Stephen Curry picked Redick and led the break to fake a layup against Blake Griffin to leave the ball for an easy Kevin Durant dunk.
Curry then got another steal, sneaking in on Griffin’s high post-up:
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McCaw then tapped the ball out of Rivers’ hands and Durant drew free throws against Griffin.
“KD” then got a pass up top, found DeAndre Jordan on him, and blew past him down the lane for a righty dunk:
[protected-iframe id=”6b587f1efc170b62c705ecb36aa84861-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F827362959613640705″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]McCaw even added a triple on a double-team of Klay Thompson, then hit another from the left corner via Durant.
But the Clippers hung around. Jordan got a reverse two-handed alley-oop from Rivers…
[protected-iframe id=”db2725c5e920d3dae8d26f5192eaeaab-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827365593720385536″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]…Thompson got his second foul on a phantom call as Redick got tripped, possibly by himself, and Kerr brought Ian Clark in early.
Curry got a reverse catch on a backdoor pass to the left baseline by Durant…
[protected-iframe id=”0b7272262b9b84264564bb31f0c66fb1-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827365883148333056″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]…KD hit a dribble-and-pop, but Redick hit a turn-and-pivot with McCaw trailing him closely, and Griffin made a nice drive over Durant.
McGee got a dunk on a bad save under the Warriors’ hoop by Jordan, and the Warriors held a 20-15 lead with 5:37 remaining.
Out of the timeout, KD couldn’t hit on a post-up over Rivers, but the Clippers lost track of McGee and he soared in for the easy two-hand smash, the Warriors’ sixth dunk already of the night.
Later, Griffin came back with a dunk down the lane after Jordan and Curry traded turnovers, and Steph came back with a double-clutch banker over Felton.
Out of a timeout, Jordan picked up a technical, still steaming from the earlier turnover which was a charge, and with the #SplashBrothers in with Andre Iguodala, Kevon Looney and Anderson Varejao, Curry missed, Varejao got the board, and fired the ball out to Iguodala on the left wing.
Iguodala gave an up-fake, creating a lane, and he went with a behind-the-back pass to Looney for a two-handed dunk-slash-put-in:
[protected-iframe id=”a6a37ee01fd08c5a672277c8f14c9e5b-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F827367330317365248″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Felton lost the ball unforced out of bounds, and the Warriors took advantage with a bucket, although the Clippers answered with two straight. Looney drew a foul with 2.1 seconds to go and buried both throws to give Golden State a 33-22 lead after one.
Q2: Late Flurry
Klay missed a jumper to start the second stanza, then Marreese Speights there a cross-court bullet through the entire Golden State defense to find Redick for a three…
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Out of the timeout, the Warriors ran a set, but no one could get open, so KD crossed over Jamal Crawford late in the shot clock and buried a jumper.
The Warriors’ defense improved, such as this deflection by Thompson:
[protected-iframe id=”8754f92dca9bd6352d0e194d57df2034-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827371751432556544″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]But Brandon Bass dished to Speights and collided with James McAdoo for an and-one, and Redick hit another triple after Bass blocked an attack by Clark:
[protected-iframe id=”46199d7e4399fc0f9bb56d0feca5faf4-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827370550456573952″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]That got the Clippers as close as 35-31, but the Warriors pulled away as Thompson found McAdoo for a dunk, then played catch with him for another layup, and finally “Mac” grabbed a miss by Klay and re-fed him. Thompson dribbled along the baseline and hit an open jumper:
[protected-iframe id=”a585fb8632e61be19c9778ecefaa2fa2-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827371940239126528″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]That gave the Warriors a 43-31 lead, Jordan got a dunk in transition from Redick, but Durant answered back with a bouncer to McAdoo flying down the right baseline for a two-hand jam:
[protected-iframe id=”612d798e358b8e6c78a5041f470701d8-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827372728743141376″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]With 5:21 left, the Warriors held a 45-34 lead.
McCaw got a bucket out of the timeout, but they were sandwiched between a jumper by Crawford and a three by him as well.
After Curry came back in and missed from the right elbow, Griffin led the break and found Redick for three from the right wing on the trail.
Just like that, the Clippers were back in business, down just 47-42.
Kerr opted to purposely hack Jordan, he made one and missed one, and on the next sequence, Golden State had Varejao take a lot shot clock jumper, but both McCaw and Klay did a good job of tapping the ball and Thompson eventually hit a three form the corner.
With 2:52 remaining, the Warriors held a 50-43 lead as Kerr had Jordan fouled again.
DeAndre made one of two, Steph then hit a three off a right-wing flare play with Looney, but after another hack of Jordan, Griffin went in for a layup “for kicks” after the whistle, Curry batted the ball out of bounds in a sort of guards’ version of a big man catching a three after a whistle, but that’s against the rules and an automatic technical.
By them time Jordan hit both free throws, the Clippers trimmed the lead to 53-47.
Klay hit a tough three on a catch over Redick, Felton came back with an attack past Durant, but Steph rushed up the court, found Iguodala, who found KD for the trailing triple, and the Warriors were back up by ten.
Iguodala then smothered a lob attempt by Redick, Thompson missed a three in transition, but Curry got the offensive rebound in stride for a reverse layup.
Steph gave a flex celebration, to Green’s delight on the bench, but paid for it at the other end on a hard screen by Jordan:
[protected-iframe id=”fc86b817d100edb74fa6e4cc44f390b9-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F827377027044945920″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Not long after, Griffin came flying down the lane over Looney for a posterizing one-hand hammer:
[protected-iframe id=”863968ab4049b3c9b0e9ea0c906f4ec7-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBAonTNT%2Fstatus%2F827377695805800448″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Durant scored on an easy baseline inbound play on the next possession, but Griffin came back with an and-one with the Warriors retreating, the foul on Durant.
With the flurry of late-quarter scoring which included two more free throws by Steph, the Warriors took a 65-55 lead into halftime.
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