Golden State Warriors defeat Los Angeles Clippers for ninth straight time
The shorthanded Golden State Warriors had no trouble dispatching of the Los Angeles Clippers for a ninth straight time on Thursday night.
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The Los Angeles Clippers, have found themselves on the losing end to the Golden State Warriors for a ninth straight time. Each loss has clearly begun to take it’s toll on them. Once again, the Warriors put their fellow Pacific Division foes to bed in the third quarter and there was just no fight from a team missing Chris Paul. While that’s a huge player to miss for Los Angeles, the Warriors weren’t without their injuries either.
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Coming into this game, Golden State was without Draymond Green, Zaza Pachulia, Shaun Livingston and David West. With two starters and two key bench players out for Golden State, this could have been the game for the Clippers to steal as they were at home.
Instead, the Warriors put together another impressive offensive output from the beginning. Golden State scored 33 points in the first quarter despite Stephen Curry struggling to get his shot going in the Staples Center once again. Whether it’s the arena or he was just cold early, he has not played well in the arena this year.
JaVale McGee did assert himself early. He battled against DeAndre Jordan and grabbed some key rebounds to give Golden State extra looks. His steady influence down low allowed the superstars to breathe easy while doing their jobs. While Curry was taking some time to figure things out in the first half, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant helped pick up the offense by getting hot early. They even got help from their favorite rookie.
They got some help from Patrick McCaw, who was making the start with Green out. McCaw helped generate some offense and found Thompson for some open looks as he showed starting was no big deal for him. McCaw’s passing along with the rest of the team moving the ball around allowed the Warriors hit that magic mark of 30-plus assists again and they’ve been unstoppable when they hit that number.
Blake Griffin tried his best to keep pace with Golden State in the first half, but everything fell apart in the third. He would finish with over 30 points but he got no help from the rest of his team. In many ways, it was the same story of the game as Saturday night.
The one thing Los Angeles did differently from Saturday, is that they didn’t quit and made Golden State work until the clock ran out. If these games were more like the final two minutes of the fourth quarter were, then it would certainly feel like a rivalry.
