WARRIORS STANDING AFTER A SHOOTOUT
Golden State rallies from 17 points down as Clippers’ streak ends despite 40 from Griffin.
The Clippers long ago proved they are a playoff team. The question now is, are they a team that can contend for a title?
“We believe we are,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said before Tuesday’s game.
There might be few others that share that belief after the Clippers let a 17-point first-half lead get away in a 110-106 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center in a physical, often chippy game that had the intensity, if not the quality, of a playoff matchup.
The Clippers played brilliantly at times, horribly at others in losing for the first time in eight games. Also lost was an opportunity to move within a half-game of the third seed in the Western Conference and into position to play host to a first-round playoff series later this month.
The fact it came against the Warriors, who have won 10 in a row and are rapidly becoming the Clippers’ most bitter rival, made it even more difficult to take.
Which is why Rivers could be heard screaming at his team behind closed doors when it ended.
And it wasn’t hard to understand why.
“We had the right mind-set, we had the right energy,” Rivers said. “We just couldn’t sustain it.”
With Blake Griffin scoring 18 of his game-high 40 points and DeAndre Jordan grabbing 10 rebounds in the first half, the Clippers led by 17 midway through the second quarter, threatening to embarrass a team that has lost once in its last 16 games.
There’s a reason the Warriors have the league’s best record, though, and they showed that over the next 13 minutes, running the Clippers down and taking their first lead of the game, 7271, on Stephen Curry’s three-point shot with 4:02 left in the third.
“In the third quarter, I thought the whole pace of the game changed,” Rivers said. “And then it flipped. Once their shot-makers started making them it’s tough to stop.”
Golden State shot 52.4% from the floor in their 64-point second half while the Clippers shot only 40%. And the Warriors’ bench outscored the Clippers’ reserves, 34-12.
“Our second unit didn’t play well tonight,” Rivers conceded.
The Clippers fought back to retake the lead four times — the final time at 92-91 on Chris Paul’s two free throws with eight minutes left. The teams were tied four times down the stretch before a David Lee free throw with less than three minutes to play put the Warriors ahead for good.
Golden State sealed the win in the final minute when Andre Iguodala made three free throws following a controversial call against the Clippers’ Matt Barnes.
Curry finished with a team-high 27 points while Klay Thompson had 25. Paul followed Griffin for the Clippers with 27 points. Jordan had 15 rebounds, three more than Griffin.
“We played tough tonight,” Jordan said. “We gave up some leads and stopped playing defense. When you play a great team like that you can’t have any lapses."
Speaking of rebounds, the Clippers will have to bounce back quickly because they play another game with huge playoff implications Wednesday night in Portland.
“There’s a point in time where you need to be peaking,” guard Dahntay Jones said. “And that’s where we’re at right now.”