Warriors at Clippers
The Golden State Warriors looked like they were cruising to a 2-0 lead over the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers until everything fell apart on Monday. The Warriors will try to bounce back after squandering a 31-point lead in a Game 2 loss and re-establish homecourt advantage when they visit the Clippers for Game 3 on Thursday.
Golden State went up 31 points with over seven minutes left in the third quarter, but superstar Stephen Curry was whistled for his fourth foul seconds later and had to leave the game, and Los Angeles brought Lou Williams back into the game at that point and began to make its run. "I hated my fourth foul, almost eight minutes left in the third quarter," Curry told reporters. "Our whole rotation changes. A lot of little things that end up giving them confidence. That snowball effect." Williams finished with 36 points on 13-of-22 shooting and 11 assists in 33 minutes and was nonchalant about the performance. "For me, I just got lost in the moment, to be honest with you," Williams told reporters. "I was trying to cut the lead down. I know we were down 30 at one point. I just got lost in the moment."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT, NBCS Bay Area (Golden State), FS Prime Ticket (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS: Before Curry left the game after drawing his fourth foul and before the lead evaporated on Monday, Golden State was already feeling down after watching center DeMarcus Cousins go down with a quad injury in the first half. Veteran center Andrew Bogut logged a season-high 17 minutes off the bench, finishing with three points and nine rebounds, and summed up the team's feelings after the contest. "The mood's (expletive)" Bogut told reporters of the postgame locker room. "And that's actually a positive sign in my opinion. It wasn't something where we were like, 'Oh, we'll get them next time.' We're genuinely (ticked) off about it."
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS: Los Angeles rookie point guard Landry Shamet hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute and power forward Montrezl Harrell iced the game with two free throws to cap a 25-point effort on 9-of-9 shooting that included 10 rebounds off the bench. "We came out (in the) second half, did some defensive things, coverages were different," Harrell told reporters. "Overall, coming out of the locker room in the second half, we played a lot harder, was a lot more aggressive. We went downhill and played basically Clippers basketball." Los Angeles scored 85 points in the second half and shot 56.5 percent from the field in the contest after managing 48 second-half points and shooting 40 percent in a 121-104 Game 1 setback.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Warriors SF Kevin Durant committed nine of the team's 22 turnovers on Monday.
2. Harrell is averaging 25.5 points on 20-of-24 shooting in the series.
3. Cousins could miss the remainder of the playoffs with a left quad injury.