Clippers Fight But Fall 115-112
- Updated: February 20, 2016
The Los Angeles Clippers would take on the Golden State Warriors Saturday night after getting a key win over San Antonio on Thursday night. Golden State is coming off a rare loss against Portland on Friday where they lost by their widest margin of the year, 32. Still without Blake Griffin and Austin Rivers, Los Angeles would certainly be fighting an uphill battle in this one.
Quarter number one was jump-started by the Warriors as defensive miscues by the Clippers would help them get out to a 13 point lead early on. Chris Paul would help narrow the margin for the Clippers down to just 6 as he scored 10 points in the quarter, cutting the Warrior lead to 6 with just over 3 minutes to go. Chris Paul would then exit the game for the remainder of the half. His absence was clearly noticed as Golden State rebuilt their lead back to 13 as they would end the quarter up 33-20.
The second quarter got off to a very slow start thanks to two technical fouls early on by the Clippers (Redick and Paul) and another quick one on Draymond Green of the Warriors. Jamal Crawford would be a big scorer off the bench for Los Angeles, scoring just 2 points in the first he would finish the half with 15. His effort would help but it wouldn’t be enough as Golden State would lead 63-53 to end the half.
Whistle happy referees had a lot of say in the first half of this one as there were 29 combine fouls called on the two teams. The Warriors would shoot 13% better in the Clippers through the first half.
The third got underway with a quick contribution from Klay Thompson who would get a three pointer and a huge assist on an alley-oop to Green. Golden State would go up 15 with still 10 minutes remaining. Then a 9-2 Clipper run helped pull them back as that lead was cut to just 8 with a little more than 6 to go. Some more fight from the Clippers would trim that lead as low as 5 before the end of the quarter, but the Warriors would grow it out to a 93-84 lead with one-quarter left.
A rough start to the fourth quarter would give the Clippers a tough hill to climb to get back into the game as the Warriors would lead by as many as 18 early on. Los Angeles would try to cut it down throughout the quarter but it seemed every time they would, Golden State would answer back with some points of their own. Until with less than two minutes to go, with backups in on both sides as it looked like the Warriors would run away with this one the Clippers would go on a 13-0 run and leave them trailing by just 3 with 5 seconds to go. Golden State would then turn the ball over on the inbound and CJ Wilcox would miss a half court heave to tie it up and the would lose 115-112. Great fight from the Clippers to end this one but it just wouldn’t be enough against their very talented opponent.
Chris Paul ended the contest with 24 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists as he and Jordan who had 21 rebounds and 16 points had huge nights that wouldn’t be enough for their club. Crawford would be equally as impressive off the bench with 25.
The Clippers fall to 36-19 on the season and will take on the Phoenix Suns on Monday on NBATV at 7:30 PST. Thanks for reading along Clipper fans and come back to CaliSports for all your Clipper news.
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