Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – It wasn’t the playoffs, but the atmosphere, tensions and back-and-forth finish certainly felt like it Tuesday night at STAPLES Center.
The Clippers led by as many as 17 points but watched the Warriors tie the game in the third quarter and go on to win, 110-106, after a fourth quarter in which neither team led by more than four points until nine seconds remained.
As the rivalry continued to heat up, so too did the Clippers’ and Warriors’ stars. Blake Griffin finished with 40 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. It was his highest scoring output since putting up a season-high 45 points when he hit a buzzer-beater to win in overtime Dec. 8 against the Suns.
“When you walk away with a loss, it doesn’t really mean a lot,” Griffin said. “You can’t let them get easy looks. We let them do that too many times tonight.”
Chris Paul scored 27 points and dished out nine assists, but it wasn’t enough to keep the seven-game winning streak going. Paul’s counterpart on the Warriors, Stephen Curry, also had 27 points on the night.
“It’s tough,” Paul said. “Obviously he has a great handle, you saw that tonight. They run him off screens, a ton of screens. Three of those shots I was in his chest and he still made it.”
Curry and Klay Thompson, who combined for 52 points in the game, had 24 of the Warriors’ 36 points in the third quarter. The Clippers watched a 17-point lead with 4:58 remaining in the second quarter disappear by the five-minute mark a quarter later.
“They kind of flipped a switch, but we flipped off a switch a little bit,” said head coach Doc Rivers.
It was a back-and-forth night the rest of the way. The Clippers never trailed by more than four points until the waning seconds of the night, but there were seven ties and five lead changes all occurring in the second half.
The Clippers started out hot offensively, scoring 30 points in the first quarter. But the two most efficient offenses in the league picked different times to go off.
The Warriors scored 64 points in the second half, including 28 in the fourth quarter, while the Clippers went cold late, hitting only three field goals among their 18 points in the fourth quarter.
“They’re shot-makers, and it was hard to turn them off,” Rivers said. “I thought we lost our way offensively.”
DeAndre Jordan hit two clutch free throws with 1:25 remaining to bring the Clippers within a point of the Warriors, but Matt Barnes was called for a foul on a missed 3-pointer by Andre Iguodala, and Iguodala hit all three free-throws. The Warriors would keep the lead the rest of the way, hitting four free throws to close it out.
Jordan said the Warriors are a team they’re going to have to go through to make it where they want to make it in the playoffs down the line. Griffin added that despite the loss, championships aren’t won in the regular season.
“In a seven-game series, I like our odds against anybody,” Griffin said.
NOTES: Griffin had 12 points by the end of the first quarter … It marked Griffin's 11th game with at least 30 points this season. The Clippers are 8-3 when he has reached the mark this season… It also marked Griffin’s sixth career 40-plus point game and his second of the season … Jordan finished with 15 rebounds, giving him at least 10 rebounds in an NBA-leading 68 games this season… Since 1985-86, only three players have grabbed 10+ rebounds in 68 or more of their team's first 75 games in a season… The Warriors won their 10th straight game … Draymond Green sat out for the Warriors …