The Los Angeles Clippers had won seven straight games against the Golden State Warriors. But with Chris Paul back in a Clippers jersey, the Warriors returned to their traditional stomping of the Clip Show in a 98-79 victory.
In CP3’s final three seasons in Los Angeles from 2014-17, the Warriors went 11-1 against the Clippers. Then Paul moved on the Houston Rockets, and the Warriors beat them in the playoffs in both years. Paul finally figured out how to stop the Warriors in the 2023-24 season — by
joining the team.
Tuesday night, he was back battling the Warriors again, leaving Steph Curry with a nasty scratch on his neck and Paul himself with a box score line of zero points, two assists, and a plus/minus of -11. He also provided the highlight of the night when Brandin Podziemski delivered an emphatic chasedown block of a CP3 breakaway.
But Chris Paul wasn’t the only historical enemy the Dubs vanquished in this game. James Harden scored 20 first-half points, flopping his way to a 7-for-7 performance at the foul line. In the second half? Zero points, zero assists.
The Warriors took control with a dominant, 32-14 third quarter. With 10 minutes left in the third, Curry scored seven points in 66 seconds. Then the Warriors held the Clippers scoreless for nearly four minutes, going on a 10-0 run where they had two steals and forced both a shot clock violation and a timeout. The run began with three free throws from Curry, then kept going with two Curry assists in transition for easy buckets. Curry had eight assists and two steals to go with his 19 points.
The team ended the quarter on a 16-2 run, with Jimmy Butler notching the 16,000th point of his career and his 10th of the quarter tipping in an Al Horford miss. He finished with 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting, five rebounds, and five assists, going 3-for-4 on threes.
For the quarter, the Warriors had five steals, forced two shot clock violations, and six Clippers points after the 9:11 mark (never forget). The Warriors made five three-pointers, the Clippers made none. When Draymond Green hit a layup with 6:16 to go, the Dubs had a 20-point lead and the game was effectively over, with Curry coming in briefly to sink his second three-pointer and get some cardio.
The Warriors had 11 steals, holding the Clippers to 18.2 percent shooting on threes and 36.6 percent shooting overall. Harden didn’t score in the second half but still ended up the Clippers’ leading scorer. He wasn’t alone in his struggles. For a stretch of nearly 19 minutes spanning the final two quarters, ending the Clippers scored only 13 points. The Warriors scored 40.
Quinten Post started the game to match up with Ivica Zubac, who had 14 points and 13 rebounds, six of them on the offensive end. Eight of Zubac’s points came from putting back offensive rebounds, but he also had three turnovers. Post nearly matched Zubac with 12 points and 8 rebounds in 25 minutes, going 4-for-7 on triples with the Clippers bigs reluctant to chase him out to the three-point line. He finished a game-high +34.
Another young Warrior continued his hot outside shooting. Moses Moody went 3-for-7 from distance and is now 9-for-17 on the season, showing no ill effects from his offseason thumb surgery. Jonathan Kuminga went 1-for-2 from deep in a very solid game where his numbers weren’t all that impressive (9 points, 5 rebounds, an assist and a steal), but he made some timely passes and played solid defense, making a remarkable save off a loose ball to get Buddy Hield a layup.
Draymond Green put up an extremely Draymondian stat line of 7 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals, constantly harassing the Clippers with timely doubles and deflecting passes. He helped terrorize Zubac in the post, getting whistled for two fouls on nearly clean steals and mucking up the Clippers passing — they had only 10 assists. Butler was a menace on defense as well, containing Kawhi Leonard, who had 18 points on 7-for-17 shooting but only took three free throws.
The Warriors moved to 4-1 and did so without taxing their starters. Curry only played 26 minutes. Things got hairy at the end of the first quarter, when Steve Kerr made a hockey-style substitution of five players at once, and Harden took advantage with a personal 8-0 run. Podziemski salvaged a 33-25 lead with a buzzer-beating corner three.
Bench-heavy lineups struggled to score in the second, mainly by going 1-for-8 on three-pointers. They still held the Clippers to 24 points, keeping the game in reach, though L.A. closed on a 14-2 run. The Warriors missed some shots, the Clippers grabbed three offensive rebounds, and a Jimmy Butler tip-in didn’t fall, giving the Clippers a 49-46. It felt low-scoring, except the second half was even shorter on points.
The Warriors used 11 players in the competitive portion of the game, and all of them contributed in some way, though Al Horford was a little unlucky on his shots after two games off. It’s a great sign that four young guys are proving themselves reliable rotation players, with rookie Will Richard acquitting himself as well.
Plus Chris Paul lost. That never gets old.
