“This was the toughest on the road so far”, said Curry, who scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and finished making 11 of 22 shots from the floor, including six of 14 from behind the 3-point stripe. He hit a wide-open 3-pointer with 1:15 left and then banged home a second one with 41 seconds to go to break open a game that was tight all the way up to that point.
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Curry put the Warriors back ahead for good with his sixth 3-pointer, and Iguodala tossed an inbound pass to Draymond Green for a layup.
On the other hand, Canadian Raptors are facing painful losing streaks that have positioned the team in the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference standings. It was a season best for points in the opening quarter. The Clippers had a 32-16 lead at one point. Those five have now played 48 minutes together this season, and their net rating (the difference in points scored vs. points allowed per 100 possessions) is 61.8, which is an astronomical difference. Next, Iguodala made two key threes, Green shut Blake Griffin down so much in the fourth quarter he resorted to flopping, and then bang, MVP took over the game like usual.
“We were close, but close isn’t good enough”. The Clippers later admitted to picking their poison by funneling the ball to Iguodala, and he made them pay. It was Clark who started the sequence that led to Green’s 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter. After a miss by Jamal Crawford, Clark pulled down the defensive rebound, drove all the way to the lane, sucked the defense in and passed to a wide-open Green in the left corner. With both Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa out, Clark was called into action to close the third quarter. Out of the 11 field goals, 10 were assisted. Over the game’s final 32:55, the potent Warriors scored 97 points. And the Warriors did just that, completing the 23-point comeback and putting another dagger into the Clippers’ claims of a Golden State-LA rivalry. The moves haven’t worked yet, and the Clippers sit at 6-5 with no real answer to the Warriors’ small-ball lineup. Cue Curry scoring 13 of his 40 points in the final frame. Chris Paul was unconscionable with 18 points on 7-7 for shooting and 4-4 from deep. Andrew Bogut also chipped in 10 points, 18 rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals. So the Clippers added talented players like Paul Pierce, Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson in the offseason. That 23-point Clippers cushion had dwindled down to 1 point.
“The recipe against the Clippers is you can’t give them easy points”, said Curry, who committed seven turnovers. After winning its first four games, Los Angeles (6-5) has lost five of seven and is already six games behind Golden State in the Pacific Division. The other was the 1957-58 Boston Celtics.
The Clippers had listed Paul as doubtful all the way up until about two hours before the game after limiting his participation in practice the previous few days. They went all out to beat the defending champions and their chief rivals, and they were going to be rewarded for their efforts.
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While the Warriors are eyeing the all-time win record, this year’s Sixers look like they could take a run at the league record for losses, which coincidentally they set themselves in 1972-73 with 73 (poor Philly fans, man). The Warriors avoided any major injuries last season, and if they continue to blow out teams and limit their players’ minutes, there’s little reason to believe Golden State can’t remain healthy for a second straight year. The rest of the National Basketball Association has only two.
