#79: GSW @ LAC 4/10/10

Los Angeles Clippers

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.

#73: GSW @ LAC 3/28/10

PostThoughts -- Warriors 121, Clippers 103

A ROAD win?! Sweet jumpin' fuck! The Dubs snapped a thirteen-game losing streak outside of Oakland in this one, and posted their first road win against a non-Nets/non-Wolves team since November.

That cold night against Dallas sure didn't seem to stick; the Warriors resumed their layup line here, and the Clips bricked a few too many to keep up. This game was very much in keeping with recent trends, as the Warriors got badly outrebounded (53-38), but scored (53.4 FG%) and passed (2.27 A/TO) with extreme efficiency. Was Monta's absence a positive? Hard to say... his net plus-minus results haven't been bad lately, and he's been around for many of the slickest offensive performances. But at the very least, one can safely say that he wasn't missed here.

Both Turiaf and Tolliver had more than twice as many points as shot attempts, which is the kind of complementary work you've gotta love. And while our man Reggie is still flying far south of his previous efficiency -- 25 points on 22 shots ain't nothin' to write home about -- seven assists against one turnover buys you a lot of goodwill around here. Curry had the kind of quiet, foul-heavy, good-but-not-great game we saw a lot from him in the season's first couple months. Given the crushing number of minutes he's received as a rookie, he's held up admirably.

As odd as it is to say about a team that's 5-30 outside of their building, the Warriors have a chance to grab another couple road wins before the season wraps up. They'll lose in Salt Lake City tomorrow, but Sunday brings a road trip replete with patsies (the Raptors, the Wizards, the Wolves, these Clippers), and the Warriors' final game is against a banged-up Blazers team that will almost certainly be resting up for the postseason. A mini-run to end the year is very possible. On a strategic level, it'd be the exact wrong time to start winning, but it'd be nice for the players to feel a little sunshine on their faces, and it'd be nice to wrap up this Nellie fiasco once and for all.

#51: LAC @ GSW 2/10/10

PreThoughts -- Warriors 132, Clippers 102

Daaaaaamn!

Fantastically fun game, with actively strong play from all six Warriors who got real minutes. I’m not gonna jump on the “trade Monta” bandwagon because of one hot-shooting game, but it sure was nice to see how well the ball moved tonight.

The Warriors' centers need a ton more props than they’ve been getting lately. Biedrins and Turiaf combined for 23 points on 11 shots, 11 boards, 2 blocks, 7 assists, 0 turnovers and a quiet Chris Kaman tonight, and it’s not like this is the first time they’ve combined for elite production in the last couple weeks. These guys are assets. It was great to see Tolliver’s shot finally fall… you really had to feel happy for the guy. And CJ was low-profile but effective in his 48 minutes, which is really hard to do.

Curry was, needless to say, spectacular. There’s no reason to pretend that he played a perfect all-around game, because he didn’t — six turnovers from Curry are every bit as harmful as six turnovers from Monta, and he got beat a good bit on D even before he was trying to avoid fouls — but the things he did well, he did reeeaaaally well. The kid should be getting 15 shots a night, and should be getting the ball in transition situations whenever possible.

The other guy who needs more shots, more minutes, more credit, more everything? Anthony Morrow. For while it’s true that the offense flows better with Monta off the floor, it’s also true that the offense flows better with Morrow on it… he stretches a defense, he passes willingly, and he’s starting to become a bit of a scrapper near the basket. He’s been an enormous factor in these last couple games, and if he keeps rebounding, passing and creating offense like this, things could get really damn interesting around here.

Nellie coached a fine game, for the same reason that he usually coaches better when the Warriors are short-handed: he doesn’t have the leeway to make stupid decisions. When all he’s able to do is play guys at their normal positions for long stretches, he doesn’t get in the way nearly as much with counterproductive mismatches. It’s sad that it takes injuries to stop him from being a terrible coach, but at least something does the trick.

It’ll be very interesting to see what happens when the two big scorers come back after the All-Star break.