Remembering the three years that Baron Davis played with the
Golden State Warriors, a boisterous crowd of 19,273 at Oracle Arena
began booing the Los Angeles Clippers’ veteran guard the first time
he touched the ball Friday night. But that was faint noise compared
with the roar let out when Golden State used a fourth-quarter surge
to defeat the Clippers, 122-112, ending the Clippers’ three-game
winning streak.
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OAKLAND
Remembering the three years that Baron Davis played with the Golden State Warriors, a boisterous crowd of 19,273 at Oracle Arena began booing the Los Angeles Clippers’ veteran guard the first time he touched the ball Friday night.
But that was faint noise compared with the roar let out when Golden State used a fourth-quarter surge to defeat the Clippers, 122-112, ending the Clippers’ three-game winning streak.
The Clippers were undone in the final quarter by the Warriors’ high-scoring duo of Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry, key three-point baskets by Vladimir Radmanovic and Reggie Williams and several turnovers of their own.
Golden State dominated the Clippers overall with long-range baskets, making 14 of 26 three-pointers.
“Give Golden State some credit, they shot it really well tonight,” Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “But our intensity to start the game was not there. I thought it was a little bit better in the second half when we made a bit of a run on them and tied it up.”
The Clippers also struggled to defend Golden State’s David Lee as they had in their previous game, when the forward scored only eight points. This time Lee scored 19 points.
This was the teams’ third meeting of the year, and second of three matchups in two weeks, and Golden State now leads the series 2-1.
Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin led the Clippers’ scoring with 28 points each, while Davis scored 15 points.
Ellis, the Warriors’ leading scorer, led all players with 30 points, and Curry had 23.
Arriving here with momentum from their win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday, the Clippers got into a shootout early and often struggled to stay in sync against the Warriors.
Gordon and Randy Foye each traveled, and more than one of the lob passes from Davis to Griffin for Griffin to make one of his patented slam dunks missed their connection, even though they still drew gasps from the crowd.
They also were treated to Griffin making a dazzling fourth-quarter play as he spun around while driving to the basket, made what appeared to be a blind layup, was fouled by Golden State and then plowed into a cameraman, whom Griffin helped back to his feet before making the free throw.
That cut their deficit to 104-101.
After trailing by 12 points late in the second quarter and by eight entering the fourth quarter, the Clippers managed to tie it at 106-106 with less than four minutes remaining.
That was the last the Clippers saw of the lead, as the Warriors then surged ahead with a couple of three-pointers by Radmanovic.
“Radmanovic and Williams really hurt us in the second half,” Del Negro said. “We didn’t get to them early enough or often enough and they made us pay for it.”
The Clippers still have won eight of their last 12 games. “We can’t let down just because we lost this game,” Gordon said.
“We’ve got big games coming up (including the Lakers on Sunday) and this is a lesson. We just have to get back to playing basketball like we have been.”
— Story by Jim Peltz, Los Angeles Times
