Curry did a nice job taking over the offensive load from Ellis, who probably should have sat this one out (6-21 from the field, 0-6 from 3). Biedrins was woeful once again with just 6 and 6 in 22 minutes with a team-low (by a lot) -18.

Solid line from Lee at 16 and 15, though you have to dock him a bit for Griffin’s performance. Williams showed up with 16 off the bench, but with Curry the only player who cracked 20 it just wasn’t enough.

I guess I can’t feel too bad about this loss, as it was a road back-to-back against a fresh team that’s been playing well at home. But pretty soon the Warriors need to start winning these sorts of games if they hope to be a good team — this game was there for the taking, but they couldn’t get it done in crunch time. And there’s only so long that you can make excuses for losses before you have to expect to stay in the lottery.

• 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.

Thankfully for the Warriors, the Clippers aren’t even running plays for Blake Griffin yet. But Lee and Biedrins will still have their hands full with the guy who’s season-ending knee injury last year opened the door for Steph Curry and Tyreke Evans to pretend that they’re the best players in their draft class. Keys to the game:

• Interior Defense. Can the Warriors keep Blake from doing a Luis Scola impression? I think the main key here is defensive rebounding — Griffin is all about raw physical skills right now, and will likely do most of his damage on fast breaks and put backs. The Warriors need to make sure they’re getting a body on Griffin on every shot attempt.
• Interior Defense. Baron Davis is expected to repeatedly try to post up Stephen Curry. Can Curry hold his ground and at least force Davis to make tough shots? The Warriors aren’t inclined to give Curry much help lest Davis make them pay with a pass to the open man, so let’s hope that bum ankle is feeling strong tonight.