3
9
Jan

Preview: Warriors at Clippers

by

Golden State
Warriors

@

Los Angeles
Clippers

Staples Center
12:30pm | CSNBA

Official Game Preview

2010-11 Meetings
October 29, 2010 • Recap
Clippers 91
Warriors 109
 
January 9, 2011 • Recap
Warriors 91
Clippers 105
 
January 14, 2011 • Recap
Clippers 112
Warriors 122
 
January 22, 2011 • Recap
Warriors 109
Clippers 113
 

The Warriors visit the Staples Center for a Sunday matinee against the suddenly resurgent Clippers, who have won 6 of their last 9 (incidentally, it appears that the Clippers actually play a high number of weekend matinee games — must be part of Donald Sterling’s emphasis on a nice family experience over the on-court product). Who will triumph when two sub-.500 teams put their best stretches of the season up against one another? What to watch for this afternoon:

  • Containing the beast. Blake Griffin has been a revelation, and he’ll inevitably have a few monster dunks against the Warriors today. He’s had 22 straight double-doubles, so the best hope for the Warriors is to do what they can to contain him rather than stop him outright. In the first meeting, they got him in early foul trouble and held him to 14 and 10, which you know they’d take in an instant if offered to them again today. In fact, this strategy leads me to point #2…
  • Get to the line. The Warriors are averaging 8 fewer foul attempts per game than their opponent this season, which is just not sustainable if they’re going to contend for the playoffs this year. Step one in closing that gap is getting to the line against bad opponents, but the Warriors got that strategy off to an inauspicious start by going -15 on the stat against the Cavs. With Kaman out, a rookie big in Griffin, and Lee looking as spry as he has all season, today could be a good opportunity to start turning this around.
  • Get Curry into the flow. While his turnovers are down since returning from his injury, I feel like Curry hasn’t really gotten rolling again in his all-around floor game. In fact, in the last game Monta was by far the better distributor with 10 assists compared to Curry’s 4. Let’s see if the soph can get things clicking again today against a sub-par opponent.

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  • Jake

    Jesus on a stick that was awful. Pangs of regret on the Lee signing which haven’t really gone away since he signed on the dotted line, but he is just terrible against a decent 4. Really reinforces the idea that he was only as good as he was on a terrible team in the East. D-Wright remains a small bright spot, but I am more and more comfortable with seeing any person on this team traded and I am getting to the point of including Curry in there too.

    • http://warriorsandwhatever.com Mike

      3 rebounds in 26 minutes. Not exactly $13M material. Kinda starting to feel ya on Curry as well.

  • Christian

    Every starter played like ass, aside from Wright — though his foul trouble cannot be overlooked. This game is pretty damning in regards to the 22 game stretch being a mini-test as to them being playoff contenders. And overall, really just a disgusting performance — I don’t care how well the Clippers have been playing recently.