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Golden State Warriors (32-14) 112 - 94 Los Angeles Clippers (24-21)

First published January 19th 2019
A first glimpse of Boogie! That big dunk comes from a Durant-Boogie Pick and roll, which must be a pain to defend. I can't wait to see those between Boogie and Steph. There's just so much that they can play around with on Offense in the starter minutes. He's still very clearly getting back to the flow of things, as one would expect.
A lot of hype is lost when Lou and Gallinari both don't play. Harrell seemed much more out of it but they are still +5.7 Net Rating in minutes where he plays without Lou so maybe it was more on this specific game.
The Clippers had Bradley full-court pressing Steph and staying on him like that was the sole purpose of basketball. The easiest way to throw a wrench into this (or any defense) is getting Curry "screening" for Durant or the usual off-ball screens to free him for a catch and shoot. Bradley wasn't very effective and Steph was getting looks he liked. Bradley as a player you want on Curry in the playoffs is something I seriously question.
Clippers were looking for some ISO plays. Looney continues to be the favorite point of attack though he's made considerable strides over the last year at dealing with these. Tobias Harris is an offensive force though. The Clippers were looking disjointed and committing a lot of turnovers but he went on his own in a 8-0 run to flip the early GSW lead. The Warriors responded letting KD take over.
The predicted second quarter unit around Klay/Andre/Green/DMC is real at last! It's hard to take any insight from it tonight since they were force-feeding Cousins to get him into it. Kerr tried to get some shooting by playing a three guard line-up with KD as the four. Problem here is that SGA is big enough to just relentlessly attack Quinn Cook. No team was really scoring well and halftime comes with the fun mostly drained from the game.
Cousins was already showing more synergy with the starters during the third. A nice pass to a cutting Curry, and two wide open three point shots (both missed) came from well set screens. Curry would make a living in the paint the whole quarter.
Besides some impossible KD threes, a lot of jump-shots were missed so what separated the team was fast break points. The Clippers kept turning over the ball and it was at this point that it went from a 1 point game to a double digits one.
After Doc called him aside to talk after a turnover, Shai's ability to stop his run on a dime got him open buckets and trying to inject some energy into the game. And the way he posted up Curry showed is already less PnR dependent to create than in the games i saw a few months back.
Cousins starting to hit threes (before celebratory fouling out ) was when the game first felt like it was sealed. It was basically a 20 point game to the end. The lack of shooting this night is what the Clippers would hope for but without two of their three biggest offensive weapons, the turnovers and lack of coherent attack plan was too much of a hurdle to get this close down the stretch.
Other Notes:
Why is the Clippers broadcast complaining about refs all game but calls this a "nice move!" ?
I like SGA with the ball on his hands (and he can't do much otherwise anyway since his defender his always happy to be the primary help guy) but this is an awful shot, and he had at least 3 of these. Also some rookie errors to correct: In this play Shai rotates his body so much to prevent Klay from getting the ball outside that he gives him a completely open lane for a cut.
Doc is very clear on what happens if you leave only one of your scorers on the court. This unit closed the 1st and the 3rd. Also, this is a great example of team defense when you aren't really afraid of 2 out of 5 players on the opposing team.
Durant has been a very willing and effective passer these past couple of weeks and i love it. Still, if there is a play where KD should be selfish and just shoot, here it is.
Edit: I didn't mentioned because it slipped my mind but Iguodola has been incredible. I have no doubt that he can be what the Warriors need him to be when the post-season comes around.

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