The Warriors fell behind the title contending Clippers by 22 points but didn’t give up and beat LA,115-105, in an early season shocker.
This was simply an astounding performance from Golden State. They’re still attempting to grow into a playoff team, and the Clippers are one of the best in the league.
Stephen Curry led the way, with 38 points and 11 assists on 13 for 24 shooting including a scorching 9 for 14 on 3-point shots. This is after he scored just 13 points against LA on Wednesday. The Warriors outscored the Clippers 52 to 20 in the last 15 minutes of the game, according to NBC Sports Bay Area, and they totaled 20 made 3-pointers.
The Warriors kept it close a couple of days ago against this same team, and they blew the doors open on Friday night. It was much like the win against the Blazers when Curry scored 62 points. That was also the second half of these baseball-type 2-game series’ in the NBA this season due to the pandemic.
The Warriors are now 5-0 when Curry scores more than 30 points. And he is on fire, according to Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area.
Here’s 8 of his 9 shots made form distance Friday night, courtesy of the Warriors’ Twitter account.
Coach Steve Kerr played Curry along with 3-point shooters Mychal Mulder and Damien Lee, which seemed to free Curry up a bit. It was a great move from the coach, but the players still had to do the work, and they did, especially Curry. (Though Mulder was a team-high plus-27.) But the rotation is still feeling itself out for sure.
For example, center James Wiseman lost some minutes to small-ball center Eric Paschall, who had 12 points in 20 minutes. Wiseman had nine points in just 15 minutes. Andrew Wiggins was effective with 16 points on 5 for 10 shooting, and actually had some battles with Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard and held his own. Brad Wanamaker even had some solid moments, hitting two late 3-pointers, including one that got the Warriors to 100 points before the Clippers did (first to 100 wins most of the time for real it’s weird).
Kerr switched up a lot in this win, actually. Check this rundown From Marcus Thompson of The Athletic.
But bottom line, this win has the potential to change the Warriors’ fortunes. They scratched and clawed to a victory against a league favorite, and that will no doubt help as they attempt to climb up the NBA ladder yet again and earn an NBA title.
Here’s the numbers for the entire team, thanks to the Warriors Twitter account.
(Photo credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
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