Warriors Game Day: Sights & Sounds From Staples Center – Golden State Flat On Historic Day For The Los Angeles Clippers (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — It was a blisteringly hot day down in sunny Southern California. It was judgment day for Donald Sterling, so the timing of a report on why Darren Erman was fired as Golden State Warriors assistant coach, because he was secretly taping conversations behind closed Warriors doors, was quite curious, indeed.
PRE-GAME
With the Adam Silver press conference scheduled for 11:00AM PDT, shootaround for the Warriors was set for 10:00AM. The team was a few minutes late and I took the opportunity to take a moment and see what the view from the #Warriors bench looked like.
The local beatwriters were, of course, keen on the Erman news, but head coach Mark Jackson said that he would not comment on the reports.
Meanwhile, Jordan Crawford and Klay Thompson shot around while Steve Blake, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers, got interviewed by a local TV station.
While local beatwriters asked about Erman, national media asked, of course, about the Sterling situation.
We also announced that we were wanting to give away, especially at an away game, a “LOUD PROUD WARRIORS” t-shirt from #Roaracle, but we were unsuccessful in finding a Warriors fan from Instagram who happened to be on the premises. The t-shirt isn’t going anywhere, so we’ll try again soon.
Later we would learn from Diamond Leung and Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group that the Warriors had considered a boycott right around morning shootaround time, had Silver not delivered a worthy enough punishment towards Sterling. The only thing we noticed about shootaround was that the leaders of the team had not taken the floor before media availability ended.
I left Staples Center a ghost town in the hours between the end of shootaround and the re-opening of the arena for pregame activities.
At pregame shootaround, a couple hours before tipoff, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green were spotted. Ezeli was doing some 1-on-1 against an assistant coach.
Meanwhile, in the Chick Hearn Press Room, Jim Barnett got ready for tonight’s Warriors-Clippers broadcast.
With the NBA taking center stage in the nation’s news, putting its stamp in history regarding race relations, media was over-capacity at Staples Center. Plenty of beatwriters were in the media dining room, listening to the coaches’ pregame pressers and avoiding the zoo in the conference room.
Kudos to Jackson and Clippers head coach Doc Rivers for their leadership during this historic time.
And on the pregame lineup, it appeared that Nemanja Nedovic was officially made active because of his circled name. In the closing minutes of that night’s loss, Nedovic would indeed take the floor after the game was already decided.
IN-GAME
Green picked up two early fouls, essentially negating the “small-ball” strategy the Warriors had in Game 4 and going into this game.
The Warriors found themselves down, but certainly in a manageable position, 21-16. DeAndre Jordan began what became a monster day with 8 points and 5 rebounds in the first quarter alone.
By the end of the quarter, it was Clippers 31, Warriors 21, with the Clippers dominating the fastbreak points, 15-6.
With the Warriors trailing almost the entire way, it appeared that Thompson turned the tide, halving a 6-point lead into a 44-41 deficit with a corner trey with 4:53 to go in the quarter. The fact that Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were a combined 2-for-11 seemed to bode well for the Warriors.
At halftime, the Clippers led, 55-50. LA was crushing it on the fastbreak points, 19-6, and Jordan still had another half to play with 15-&-11. But while David Lee (10 points) and Thompson (9 points) were contributing — heretofore the only Golden State players in double-digit scoring — Curry had only 1 assist.
Even throughout the third period, with Curry not producing much, the game was still well within reach for the Warriors, who trailed, 61-55, with 7:47 to go in the quarter. However, Lee picked up a foul on a questionable charge into the lane. Jordan continued to do damage inside and was up to 19 points and 13 rebounds at this point. Thompson started to get into rhythm and led the Warriors with 14 points, but would it be enough?
At the end of the third frame, the Warriors still found themselves down, 77-72.
In the final frame, the Warriors actually went ahead by one point on a Curry three, but the lead was quickly erased by another clutch shot by Chris Paul. In the end, that was the difference. Not only did Jordan use his athleticism inside to his advantage, while Curry struggled in the perimeter both with and without the ball, but quite simply, the Clippers made more clutch shots than the Warriors did.
Here are some examples from courtside of the Clippers’ making timely shots: Paul making a step-away three-pointer over Curry right before the first half ended, a fade-away by Griffin with the shotclock running down, Jordan hitting 3-of-4 “Hack-A-Jordan” free throws, and Griffin floating through traffic for a layup.
The final tally was Clippers 113, Warriors 103. Curry finished with just 17 quiet points, while four other Warriors were in double-figures, but those accomplishments were easily overshadowed by Jordan’s 25 points and 18 rebounds.
Golden State has its back against the wall in a definite “must-win” situation for this upcoming Thursday at #Roaracle.
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