How Warriors' win over Clippers showed progress goes beyond recharging from All-Star break

OAKLAND – After dribbling the ball behind his back, Warriors guard Stephen Curry lofted a 38-foot jump shot into the net. After running the fast break, Warriors guard Klay Thompson threw down a one-handed dunk. After performing a simple crossover, Warriors forward Kevin Durant drove from the top of the key and finished with a dunk at the rim.

Those plays represented many highlight reels, all to explain how the Warriors’ dominance led to a 134-127 victory over the Clippers on Thursday at Oracle Arena after struggling with complacency leading into All-Star weekend.

The Warriors (45-14) relied on an effective antibiotic to cure their relative woes after losing five of their last 12 games before the All-Star break. It did not center on X’s and O’s, increased film study and intense practices. It entailed the Warriors recharging entirely.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr surfed in Hawaii with his family. After playing in the All-Star game, Curry and Thompson picked up their clubs and chose Palm Springs (Curry) and Cabo San Lucas (Thompson) to complete 18 holes. And Durant simply caught up on lost sleep with frequent naps.

“The break always does that for every team and every player,” Kerr said. “You need it. It’s a long grind. You need the time.”

But as the Warriors learned against the Clippers (30-27), rest does not cure everything. After leading by as many as 18 points, the Warriors allowed the Clippers to narrow the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter. Clippers guard Lou Williams made a 3-pointer that cut the Warriors’ lead to 120-118 with 2:23 left. The Warriors still collected a lot of turnovers (15) and fouls (24). And the Clippers scored 56 points in the paint.

Then, the Warriors broke the game away. Durant found Warriors forward Andre Iguodala for an open dunk. Then, Curry made a 3-pointer at the top of the key that gave the Warriors a 125-118 cushion with 1:47 remaining. Following the Clippers’ timeout, Curry countered DeAndre Jordan’s pair of foul shots with another 3-pointer for a 128-120 advantage with 1:34 left. Curry ended the night posting 44 points while shooting 14-of-19 from the field, 8-of-11 from 3-point range and 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.

“It was mostly me,” Kerr joked. “Mostly me and a little bit Steph.”

It was actually mostly the Warriors showing progress and a little bit of their bad habits creeping back.

“We’re a championship team. We’re not going to sit here and act like we’re a battered team that has a horrible season and is looking for any glamour at all,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “I understand we haven’t been the greatest as people expect and we expect. Btu we’re still a damn good basketball team. We don’t need a step in the right direction. You may get that out of someone. But I don’t really roll like that.”

The Warriors’ coach clearly thought differently, though he downplayed his tightened rotations, reluctance to call timeout late in the game and his reliance on Curry factoring into that progress.

“It was a good step in the right direction,” Kerr said. “I think we did a lot of good things. But you can tell it’s not like we’re just going to wave a magic wand and be on top of our game again. But I liked our start.”

Yeah, about that start.

The Warriors still entered All-Star weekend with the franchise’s fourth-highest winning percentage. Yet, the Warriors’ issues with turnovers, fouls and effort became serious enough for Kerr to instruct the Warriors’ analytics guru, Samuel Gelfand, to look up data documenting the team’s slow starts.

Kerr reported the “most glaring stat” involved the Warriors’ defensive rating in the first five minutes of each game (114) and how it compared to last season (100). After noting that the Warriors’ slow starts partly stemmed from poor effort on boxing out, Kerr concluded, “we’re just not trying hard enough.”

Against the Clippers, the Warriors looked entirely different.

“We have to take every possession seriously if we want to get to where we want to get to,” Durant said. “We can’t skip any days. We can’t fast forward to the playoffs. So we might as well lock in to where we are today. You never know what will happen tomorrow.”

The Warriors made that step right way. That strong play began with changing part of their identity. Kerr started seldom used veteran center JaVale McGee over veteran Zaza Pachulia, showing preference for McGee’s athleticism and speed to counter Jordan instead of Pachulia’s physical presence and screen setting. McGee ended with six points on 3-of-6 shooting and four rebounds in 14 minutes. And Kerr added McGee will start again on Saturday against Oklahoma City.

The Warriors made sure that strong play continued with better effort. They secured a 34-23 lead after the first quarter by holding the Clippers to a 10-of-24 mark from the field and 1-of-10 clip from 3-point range. Curry ended the quarter by throwing off Austin Rivers and Tyrone Wallace with a behind-the-back-dribble and launching a 38-foot as time expired. The Warriors created the largest first-quarter cushion after leading by 12 points in Brooklyn on Nov. 19, 2017.

“I always try for big moments,” Curry said. “You sling them up and try to get it off in time and see what happens. I feel like everyone I take has a chance to go in. But when it does happen, it’s a good vibe to end the quarter or half, whatever it is.”

Those good vibes continued when Curry stared down Clippers owner Steve Ballmer after making a 3-pointer in the third quarter. Curry likened Ballmer to “another coach on the opposite side” who encouraged the Clippers’ players and talked trash to the Warriors’ players.

“He was chiming in and seeing if he could throw me off my game,” Curry said, smiling. “So I wanted to give him a little love.”

Those good vibes ensured offensive balance elsewhere. Thompson added 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, made his first seven shots and became the 10th player in franchise history to have at least 10,000 career points. Durant (24) and Draymond Green (13) also scored in double figures.

The Warriors improved their defensive focus, too. Williams had 21 points on only 7-of-17 shooting, a far cry when he posted a career-high 50 points on Jan. 10 in a performance Thompson likened to Williams “playing pickup.” Kerr added, the Warriors “were completely out of it defensively. We had no aggressiveness at all.”

That became a different story on Thursday, something Clippers coach Doc Rivers expected after openly wishing the Warriors would play poor for at least another night.

“They’re good. They’re going to be good when the playoffs start,” Rivers said. “I guarantee you that.”

The Warriors are not in postseason form, though.

“First quarter, we got it out the way. But we also have to know we have four quarters of basketball to play,” Durant said. “So we’re not impressed in giving up that many points in the last three quarters. We started the game off well. Now we have to put the full game together.”

And if not?

“If we don’t, we’ll look up and wont be ready when that show starts,” Durant said. “That’s how I look at this thing.”

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