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Three notes from Warriors’ nail-biting win over hot-shooting Clippers

By

Jacob Hutchinson

/

The game-winning shot on a night full of highlights

Remember how the Warriors blew everyone’s minds with their 3-point shooting efficiency a few years back and then the rest of the league copied them? That copycat effect was as clear tonight as it has maybe ever been. The Los Angeles Clippers scored the 3-ball at an unfathomably efficient rate, but the Warriors used a massive third-quarter run and a Stephen Curry game winner to secure a 129-127 win.

Here are three notes from tonight’s game:

“On the road to riches, they gon’ step on your toes”

Stephen Curry went 7-of-22 shooting night last night, so what did he do tonight? He dropped 42 points on 12-of-22 shooting along with 6 rebounds and 2 assists. And of course, he hit that game winner above. He also finished this 4-point play tonight, as Kevin Durant (35 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks) did earlier in the game:

Curry has three championship rings and is poised to secure more, and is arguably the most likable player in the NBA. Patrick Beverly is a classic foil for Curry. Whereas Curry typifies the poetry in motion, shooting off screens style of play that’s offense focused, Beverly is a hard-nosed defensive minded player who lives to get under other player’s skin. He’s well-loved by his own fans and hated by opposing fans in a similar way that Draymond Green is.

Tonight, he got into it with Curry after Curry picked up an offensive rebound and flexed on him. It’s not the first time he and Curry have had a disagreement. In the first game of the 2016 first round playoff series Warriors and Rockets, he tripped Curry, leading to a scuffle and barrage of technical fouls.

But, as Vince Staples, the loyal Clippers fan and Long Beach native rapped on “Don’t Get Chipped,” that’s a given; “On the road to riches, they gon’ step on your toes.” Sorry Vince:

Fouling and scowling

Both the Warriors and Clippers fouled at a surprisingly high rate tonight. Within the first six minutes of the second quarter, the Clippers had to bench Montrezl Harrell after he picked up his third foul. and the Clippers lost their rebounding advantage.

For the last three minutes of the third quarter, the Clippers were in the bonus and the Warriors sent them to the line multiple times.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Stephen Curry, Jonas Jerebko, Patrick Beverly, Danilo Gallinari and Draymond Green all had four fouls, while Harrell, Avery Bradley, Klay Thompson and Alfonzo McKinnie had three fouls. There were 65 free throws taken and 52 personal fouls committed. There were an additional three technical fouls committed (a double tech on Curry and Beverly and one by Green) and a rare unsportsmanlike foul committed by Andre Iguodala.

With nine-and-a-half minutes left, Green (14 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 5 steals) committed his fifth foul of the game, but stayed in and didn’t foul out, helping the Warriors late with a clutch steal and other key plays.

Absurd 3-point shooting from the Clippers

Until tonight, no team had ever made 13 of 16 shots from 3-point range in one half. That changed in the first half of tonight’s game as seven players hit threes for the Clippers. As a team, they made 18-of-23 (75 percent) from deep tonight, but that includes a late heave from Tobias Harris that had little chance of going down. With three minutes left in the third quarter, the Clippers had made 16-of-20.

It looks even more ridiculous when you look at the individual shooting numbers from 3-point range, as only Harrell shot less than .500:

Danilo Gallinari: 5-of-5

Tobias Harris: 6-of-7

Avery Bradley: 2-of-3

Patrick Beverly: 2-of-3

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 1-of-1

Lou Williams: 1-of-1

Mike Scott: 1-of-2

Montrezl Harrell: 0-of-1

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