Klay Thompson stole all the headlines when he scored 60 points in 29 minutes in a win against the Indiana Pacers. The Warriors won big and Steve Kerr was able to rest his starters, knowing they had to fly South to visit their division rival, the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Warriors and Clippers have had an interesting rivalry the last several years and this season both teams got off to a strong start. Every time these two teams meet, you don’t know what to expect and the Warriors were walking into Staples as four point favorites.
Here’s our recap of tonight’s game:
1st Quarter
The game got off to a slow start. Both teams had trouble finding the basket in the early minutes. Fans were expecting a high scoring game, but after six minutes, the Warriors had a 11-10 lead. No team was doing anything special, but it seemed like this was built to be a close contest. That quickly changed with two Zaza Pachulia buckets and a Klay Thompson triple. Next thing you know to the Warriors were up nine points with about three minutes left in the quarter. The Dubs caught a little fire and the lead ballooned to 15 and it wasn’t coming from just one player, it was equally spread. Steve Kerr put in some of his bench to end the quarter and they kept attacking effectively. After 12 minutes, the Warriors were up 37-19. Steph Curry led the way with a dozen points.
2nd Quarter
The second quarter was underway and the Warriors were not letting their foot fall off the gas pedal. After two minutes, the Warriors were up 20. This was getting out of hand quickly. Credit to the Clippers because they could have just sat back and called it a night, but they kept fighting. A Jamal Crawford triple cut the lead to 13 and the Clippers had some life. Chris Paul and Crawford were doing their best to get the Clippers back into the game, but the Warriors always had an answer and the ball movement was beautiful. With two minutes left in the period, Paul hit a jumper to cut the deficit to seven points. It really felt like the momentum was changing, but in the last minute and a half, the Warriors went on a 9-3 run to end the first half with a 62-49 lead.
3rd Quarter
The Clippers went into the second half with a bit of momentum and the Warriors made sure it didn’t build up to start the third quarter. The Warriors were in attack mode and while they missed plenty of shots, the ball movement was excellent and their defense was exceptional. After two minutes, Thompson’s five straight points helped the Warriors get the lead back to a comfortable 19. A KD triple and two free throws from Draymond Green gave the Warriors their biggest lead of the game, a 26 point cushion. Once again it looked like the Warriors were going to blow this game open, but the Clippers went on a 12-0 run and they would just not die. At the end of the third, the Warriors were only up 16 and the fans were getting back into it.
4th Quarter
The Warriors started strong in every quarter prior and the fourth was not any different. After four minutes of play the Warriors added another six points to their lead and did so with beautiful basketball. The two teams kept trading blows, but quite frankly this was a disappointing game for fans of the NBA. We wanted to see the Clippers and Warriors in an epic basketball matchup, instead we watched the Warriors dominate for most of the game and in spectacular fashion. The fourth quarter just winded down and the Clippers conceded defeat. The Warriors were just too strong and they disrupted the Clippers offensively. The Clippers are going to need to play much better than that if they plan on challenging the Warriors in the Western Conference. The Warriors played well tonight, but it’s scary to think how good they will be after playing a whole season together.