LOS ANGELES (AP)
The Golden State Warriors rebounded from their biggest loss of the season with a dominating shooting performance.
Klay Thompson scored 32 points, fellow
Splash Brother Stephen Curry added 23 and the Warriors shot 51 percent in beating the
Los Angeles Clippers 115-112 on
Saturday night to avoid losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.
"I was just proud of the way we responded from the jump, especially after letting (
Portland's) best player go for 50 last night,"
Thompson said. "We had to give some back. We were out to prove a
point that last night was a fluke."
The Warriors were coming off a 32-point drubbing at Portland a night earlier that snapped their 11-game winning streak. They appeared highly motivated to erase that memory from the opening tip, shooting 56 percent in the first half and twice leading by 15 points in the second quarter.
"
We can have a letdown night like last night, but we come back and refocus, and turn it on and find a way to get a win against a great team that's been playing well the last 20 or so games,"
Curry said. "With the short turnaround, we didn't want to have any excuses coming into tonight, and we got it done."
Draymond Green had his NBA-leading 11th triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to help the defending champions improve to 49-5.
Jamal Crawford scored 25 points off the bench,
Chris Paul added 24 and
DeAndre Jordan had 16 points and 21 rebounds for the
Clippers. They fell to 19-6 without injured
Blake Griffin. Their two earlier losses to the Warriors were by a combined 11 points with
Griffin in the lineup.
"They're sort of becoming like
San Antonio, they're not going to beat themselves," said
Paul, whose thigh bruise got him pulled with 8:09 remaining. "We had a few bad stretches. We know we have to be better and we will be."
The Clippers were coming off a 19-point win over San Antonio on Thursday night. Even with a day of rest, they played behind nearly the entire game.
"
Tonight was a good response to a great challenge because the Clippers have been playing really well and they're a great team," Warriors coach
Steve Kerr said. "
On the road, after a long flight, that's a great win."
Pablo Prigioni's
3-pointer off
Wesley Johnson's steal left the Clippers trailing 115-112 with five seconds to go, long after both teams' best players had gone to the bench. That brought Thompson, Curry,
Green and
Harrison Barnes back in a hurry.
Andre Iguodala's pass was stolen by
C.J. Wilcox, but his desperation 3-pointer to tie fell well short of the basket as time expired.
The game was rarely as close as the final score.
The Clippers again trailed by 15 early in the third when they briefly matched the Warriors basket-for-basket during a furious scoring stretch to close within five on a dunk by
Jordan off
Crawford's alley-oop pass. Jordan threw down some highlight dunks that had fans roaring and Crawford scored on a one-handed scoop shot, getting fouled as he crashed to the floor and making the free throw for the three-point play.
"It was a horrible offensive night that created a horrible defensive night," Clippers coach
Doc Rivers said. "We were impatient. We wanted to win the game so badly we were in our own way."
The Warriors' shooting percentage dipped - barely - to 50 percent in the third when Curry missed a few shots and got called for traveling. The Clippers' defense couldn't stifle them, either from the perimeter or inside. Curry hit a 3-pointer with Paul in his face, and Green caught an inbounds pass from
Iguodala in traffic at the basket and scored.
Curry was fouled on a 3-pointer and made two of three before Green's layup kept the Warriors ahead 93-84 going into the fourth.
Golden State went up
14 points early in the fourth on consecutive baskets by
Barnes and later stretched it to 18 points on a 7-0 run that included Barnes' second 3 of the quarter.
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- published: 21 Feb 2016
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