It's safe to say that the Warriors and the Clippers have a rivalry going. Each time the two teams have matched up this season, there's been a scuffle, and Andrew Bogut has been at the center of both.
When the Warriors played the Clippers on Christmas Day, neither team showed much Christmas spirit—the game featured two ejections and quite a few shoves between the two teams. Golden State ended up winning the game 105-103 after Jamal Crawford missed a three-pointer as time expired.
Due to their aggressive play, both the Clippers and the Warriors had to finish the game short-handed—Blake Griffin (LAC) and Draymond Green (GSW) were ejected in the second half after being involved in an altercation. It started with Draymond Green elbowing Blake Griffin at the end of the third quarter - Griffin received a technical and Green received a flagrant two after the brief quarrel, which ended with Green walking off the court and into the locker room for the remainder of the game. Minutes later, Andrew Bogut cleverly (some would say) got tangled up with Griffin under the rim, resulting in Griffin’s second technical foul and his departure to the locker room. Griffin responded in a post-game interview, calling the Warriors play “cowardly”.
If that wasn’t enough, immediately after the final buzzer went off, Andrew Bogut and Chris Paul got in each other’s faces, and it seemed as if the entire Clippers bench came running to their superstar’s rescue. After Matt Barnes pushed Bogut from behind, the shoving match escalated, and both teams had to be torn apart by coaches and officials.
Mark Jackson said in a post-game interview that he doesn’t believe that the Warriors and the Clippers have a rivalry because “neither one of us have done anything”. Has Jackson watched the past two games they’ve played against each other? Sorry Coach, but you’re not fooling anyone. These two teams hate each other; they couldn't even be civil towards each other on Christmas day!
Despite the aggressive play throughout the game, Golden State played well. They only had 13 turnovers but took 14 more shots than the clippers—this explains why their shooting percentage of 42% didn’t end up losing them the game.
Both David Lee and Klay Thompson ended the game with 23 points, and Stephen Curry added yet another double-double with a mere 11 points and 11 assists. The Warriors didn’t have an exceptional player in this game; it was more of a team effort – and for a change, that included the bench. Harrison Barnes and Marreese Speights combined for 22 points, both hitting important shots.
Golden State is looking to live up to the hype they got from the beginning of the season. They’ve been in a slump after numerous injuries, but with their stars healthy, they’re looking more like the team we saw at the beginning of the year. The Warriors play the Phoenix Suns on Friday, then start a seven-game road trip on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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