Warriors’ late comeback falls short in loss to Clippers – Paradise Post

Warriors’ late comeback falls short in loss to Clippers – Paradise Post

LOS ANGELES — So far this season, the Clippers have been a thorn in the Warriors’ sneakers.

Ty Lue’s Clippers have handed the Warriors two of their three losses on the season.

On Monday night in the Intuit Dome, the Clippers shot as well from 3 than the Warriors did from the foul line. Los Angeles forced 19 turnovers, repeating their performance from their first matchup.

An impressive third quarter wasn’t enough to make up for a sloppy first half for the Warriors, who couldn’t send the game into overtime with two late 3-point tries. Golden State (10-3) nearly came back, but ultimately fell, 102-99.

Steph Curry scored a game-high 26 points, outplaying James Harden (12 points, 16 assists), but the Warriors left too many points on the board to steal a win.

“We lost it in the first quarter,” Curry said postgame. “We got into a situation where we were rushing on offense, and I think against the Clippers we’ve had almost 40 turnovers in two games. And you can feel it…It does say that we have a lot of grit and a lot of fight to comeback and give ourselves a chance, our defense down the stretch was awesome. But two games in a row against the Clippers, and once against Cleveland — turnovers dictate the momentum early and you kind of leave yourself at the whims of makes and misses down the stretch.

The Clippers caused the Warriors to commit four turnovers in the first five minutes, repeating their disruptive ball pressure from their first meeting. In that Warriors loss, Golden State coughed up a season-high 21 turnovers; they’re 8-0 on the season when committing 15 or fewer.

Sometimes the Warriors were playing too fast, sometimes they misread split actions and sometimes the Clippers deflected interior passes.

Golden State’s bench clawed back from an early 12-point deficit, playing with more pace and force — particularly with Kyle Anderson as the small-ball center. Kevon Looney didn’t make the trip because of an illness, so the Warriors needed Anderson to play up even more than usual.

Beyond the turnovers that hurt them in the possession battle, the Warriors left points on the board from the foul line. Jonathan Kuminga missed his first three free throws, and Trayce Jackson-Davis went 0-for-2 in his first trip against “The Wall,” the Intuit Dome’s fan section. Wall or not, the Warriors rank dead last in the league in free throw percentage and shot 9-for-19 in Monday’s game.

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