The Warriors came back to beat the Clippers 124-117 in a game where the Clippers led by 23 points early in the first quarter. Stephen Curry shot 11-of-22 from the floor on his way to a double-double with 40 points and 11 rebounds, 13 of those points coming in the 4th quarter.
The Warriors were too much to handle as they shot 11-of-15 from the floor including 8-of-9 from 3 in the 4th and put the game away with little resistance. The win marked their 13th straight to start the season and are only the fifth team in NBA history to do so.
Chris Paul led the Clippers with a season-high 35 points to go with four rebounds and eight assists. Blake Griffin finished with 27 points, five rebounds and six assists but only mustered a single point in the 4th. Jamal Crawford had 15 points.
Klay Thompson added 25 points for the Warriors while Harrison Barnes had 21 and Draymond Green finished with 19.
Two 3-pointers from Andre Igoudala cut the lead to five at 112-107 in the 4th. Thompson hit a 3 with 2:43 remaining to give the Warriors their first lead, 113-112, since they led 3-2 in the 1st quarter. Crawford answered with a 3 of his own to give the Clippers their last lead of the game, 115-113. Curry followed that up, in the way he so often does, with a 3, to make it 116-115 and put the Warriors on top for good. After a Draymond Green layup, Curry sealed it with four free throws to put the Warriors up 122-115 with 25.3 seconds remaining.
The Clippers led by as much as 16 in the third quarter but the Warriors went on 15-8 run late and shrunk the deficit to 6, on Green’s 3 at the buzzer. Green scored 13 of his 19 points in the third.
The Clippers led the Warriors 68-54 at the end of the 1st half on Paul’s 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting in his return from a groin injury that forced him to sit out the last two games. Curry answered Paul’s 18-point first quarter with 14 points of his own in the second to finish with 17 in the half.
Paul had 18 points and four assists, shooting 7-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 on 3-pointers as the Clippers jumped out to a 41-25 lead at the end of the first quarter. Griffin had 12 points as the Clippers shot 17-of-24 from the field including 5-6 from 3-point range. Curry sat on the bench for most the quarter with two early fouls.
The Heat Check Magazine 