Golden State Warriors Overcome Injuries And Squeak Out Win Over Los Angeles Clippers

Despite being undermanned at the guard position, the Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers last night by a score of 120-114. With the win, they moved to 9-10 on the year and maintain the 10th seed in the West for the time being. While the Clippers have been struggling recently, there is no denying the sheer talent on the roster from Kawhi to Harden to PG13 to Westbrook. Moreover, it was a very impressive win considering the injuries the Warriors were dealing with. With Chris Paul, Gary Payton, and Andrew Wiggins out, Cory Joseph and Brandin Podziemski were forced into bigger roles then they are accustomed to and they stepped up to the challenge.

Draymond Green started the game aggressive on offense, nailing two threes to give the Dubs an early 8-4 lead. But a few minutes later James Harden came back with two threes, the latter being his vintage step back, and the Clippers took a 12-10 lead. The first period continued to go back and forth until Dario Saric got a bucket with three minutes remaining to kickstart an 11-2 run to end the quarter. After the Saric score, Kuminga and Podziemski poured in a couple long balls, before Klay Thompson hit three free throws. Westbrook tipped in a PG13 miss to make it a 31-24 game after one. Saric, Podziemski and Kuminga all striped threes to start the second quarter extending Golden State’s lead to 14, and after a Kuminga put back and second Saric three, the Warriors held a commanding 46-29 advantage. Bench player Norman Powell got going for Los Angeles with a couple buckets but the Dubs kept their foot on the gas pedal for the majority of the second period until the very end. Kawhi and Harden each poured in a trey and Zubac got some easy looks at the rim to cut into the Warriors lead and trim the deficit to 61-50 at the break.

The Warriors had been clicking on offense in the first half and just had to buckle down on defense to secure the win, but they had trouble early in the third as Kawhi and Terrance Mann led the charge on a 10-3 burst and got the Clippers within four. Though Klay found his stroke with a mid range jumper and a long ball, Moody cashed in on a three pointer, and Draymond drove to the lane for two and the Dubs were back up ten, 76-66. It remained around a ten point game the rest of the third quarter, as neither side was able to create much separation. With 12 minutes on the clock, the Warriors had the game in their hands, up 86-77. Ideally, Golden State would have put the game away in the front half of the fourth quarter and rested their starters to end the game, but the Clippers just kept hanging around. They never drew closer than five points, and the Warriors actually extended their lead to 13 early in the fourth, but LA kept the pressure on. James Harden nailed a step back three following a Zubac and-1 to give the Clips some life with three minutes to go, but Moody hit a jumper and Steph got the lane for two to put the game out of reach. It was the Curry show in the fourth as he subbed in with seven minutes to play and put up 11 points. Ultimately Golden State escaped with a six point win, but for whatever reason, it felt like the Dubs had control of the game the entire way through. 

Kawhi Leonard led the way for the Clippers with 23 points on 9-17 from the field while James Harden and Paul George had a mediocre 18 and 15. George did tally 10 assists to give himself a double double, something Zubac also achieved with 18 points and 13 boards. Off the bench Westbrook had 14 on an inefficient 5-13 but was able to snag 11 rebounds. Backup big man Daniel Theis recorded a solid 10 points, however had a surprising -20 plus/minus. For Golden State, Curry paced the team with 26 points, 11 of which came in the fourth. He was only 3-9 from deep but was getting to the rack with ease going 8-15 from the field. Klay had 22 on an 8-18 clip while Draymond and Moody had 13 apiece. The second unit was excellent last night, as all four players who checked in had a plus/minus of +12 or better. Kuminga led the way with 17 points on a very efficient 6-8 shooting while Podziemski and Saric each had 13. Joseph only put up one point but he facilitated and ran the offense well while Curry was out, and most importantly didn’t turn the ball over at all. 

The Warriors excelled last night in taking care of the ball as they only turned it over seven times. That was far and away the biggest takeaway from the game, and one of the prominent reasons they were able to win. They also converted a very high percentage of their shots inside the three point arc, hitting 60.47% of their two point looks. One other highlight of the game in my opinion was their dedication to crashing the glass. They outrebounded a much bigger Clippers team, 47-43. The best part was that it wasn’t Looney or Saric with 13 rebounds spearheading it, all five players on the court got after it and made it an emphasis to box out and snag boards. In fact, Curry and Podziemski combined for 15 themselves. It was honestly a great game for Golden State, but if I’m being nitpicky, one area they could improve on is forcing turnovers and getting out in transition a little more. With GP2 and CP3 out, their guard-defense was sure to take a hit, but I’d still like to see the Dubs get their hands in passing lanes to potentially create easy looks on the fastbreak. 

The Warriors will tip off against the Clippers once again tomorrow night, but this time in Los Angeles. This will be the last game the Warriors play for a week and a half as they were unfortunately eliminated from the In-Season Tournament. With that being said, CP3, GP2 and Wiggins will most likely remain out as there is no point rushing them back when they can just wait an extra two weeks and get them back after the break. The Dubs did look good last night and seemingly had control of the whole game against LA, but I think the story might be different tomorrow. I have the Clippers taking this one 124-117, and sending the Warriors home with their ninth loss in twelve games.