Record: 27-52 (23rd) • Point Differential: -6.5 (28th) • Pace: 92.4 (16th)
Off. Efficiency: 103.1 (28th) • eFG: 49.0 (t-22nd) • TO: 16.9 (29th) • OReb: 27.2 (11th) • FT/FG: 20.8 (t-24th)
Def. Efficiency: 110.2 (t-22nd) • eFG: 50.9 (21st) • TO: 14.0 (25th) • OReb: 26.2 (t-12th) • FT/FG: 21.5 (t-11th)
PreThoughts
The season's most important game is upon us, and we can only hope that the Warriors have noticed. A top-heavy draft class looms, a scrum of teams are still jockeying for position... both of these teams can help their standing with a loss here tonight. To the vanquished go the spoils.
It won't be an easy task for the Dubs, for as bad as they've been, the Clippers have been much, much worse: by point differential, they're the third-worst team in the league, and the fourth-worst team, Detroit, ain't exactly nipping at their heels. These guys stink on both sides of the ball, and the only thing they do decently is rebound (which makes you wonder if Blake Griffin will really be the panacea most people expect). These guys have lost their last seven games, by an average margin of 14.6 points, to boot. It's pretty hard to bet against them in a suckoff. The Warriors have been known to forget how to play on the road, though, so it could get a little interesting.
The Players To Watch are, of course, the starting point guards. While Stephen Curry surely realizes the upside of a loss here, he also knows that a big finish to the season could push him past Tyreke for Rookie of the Year... don't expect him to go half-speed. You shouldn't expect Baron Davis to go half-speed, either, but only because quarter-speed is more likely. His second year as a Clipper has been healthier and less bricktastic than his first, but his production is still worse than it was in any of his four seasons as a Warrior, and the departure of Mike Dunleavy hasn't perked him up one bit. The Dubs have made tons of mistakes in the last several years, but cutting bait on this guy probably wasn't one of them. At this point, Baron, as much as we all still love him, is no Corey Maggette.
PostThoughts -- Clippers 107, Warriors 104
A pitch-perfect loss. And it was fitting that Baron Davis was in attendance (and, until he got hurt, producing like the old days): in context, this was probably the biggest clutch performance the Warriors have come up with since "We Believe".
I attended this game live (thanks, Worriers reader JY!), and the most compelling figure on the court, by far, was Devean George. I'm not saying that the coaching staff explicitly told him to throw the game. I will say, though, that everything he did -- ill-advised twenty-footers, drives ending in airballs, an insistence on starting the half-court offense in the fourth quarter -- was both out of character and crippling to the Warriors' chances to compete. I will also say that on the two occasions that he hit a shot, Devean strutted down the court as though he'd just won the Masters, causing most of the assistant coaches to burst out laughing. I'm not saying this was tanking. I just don't know what else it could've been.
When you pair up two bad teams with mixed motivations, you're not going to produce a hardwood classic, and indeed, this game was bowling-shoe ugly. Each side had a couple of those mistimed backcourt passes out of bounds that good teams never commit. The defense on both ends was execrable as well, and live, you really notice how little lateral quickness Curry, Reggie and Morrow have. When the Warriors actually want to start winning again, that'll be a problem.
But they shouldn't have wanted to win tonight. And this three-point loss was about the best outcome you could imagine: Curry and the D-Leaguers can content themselves with a spirited road performance, while the Dubs keep sole possession of third place in the lottery. It's nothing a Lakers fan or Bobcats fan or even a Pistons fan would be proud of, but we needed this loss. In a bad world, this was a good night.
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