Month: December 2014

Curry’s 25 points carries Warriors past T’Wolves

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By Joe Hawkes

OAKLAND — Stephen Curry scored a game-high 25 points to go along with six assists helping the Golden State Warriors shake off a two-game losing streak with a comfortable 110-97 victory over the struggling Minnesota Timberwolves Saturday night in front of 19,596 at Oracle Arena.

Klay Thompson added 21 points and five rebounds for Golden State, who out-shot Minnesota 46.6 to 44.2 percent from the field. Golden State led as much as 27 points in the fourth quarter, and forced Minnesota into 25 turnovers while committing just 14 turnovers.

Even with sporting the NBA’s best record at 24-5, Golden State has been brought back down to earth recently with back-to-back losses in Los Angeles to the Lakers and Clippers respectively. Warriors first-year head coach Steve Kerr, who is an even-keel guy, has voiced his frustration with his team’s lack of focus and commitment during games, but seemed satisfied after the game.

“I told our guys, `If we want to win in May and June, we have to play every possession,” Kerr said. “You just can’t completely lose focus and throw the ball where nobody is. Or maybe at a guy with a different color jersey. I was dumbfounded with some of the stuff that I saw. But as I said, a lot of great stuff, too.”

Thompson is clearly on board with what Kerr is trying to preach to his team.

“We’re still growing and we’re still getting there. I completely understand where Steve’s coming from,” Thompson said.

“I just think our team has a tendency, at times, to want to put on a show instead of just making the right play,” Kerr said. “What they need to understand is making the right play will provide the show.”

Minnesota (5-24) didn’t look like a team that wanted to be on the court.

Small forward Thaddeus Young scored 17 points, talented rookie Zach LaVine added 12 points and a game-high 14 assists, while Troy Daniels finished 14 points off the bench for Minnesota, who dropped their eighth straight game.

Rookie Andrew Wiggins finished with 10 points. Point guard Ricky Rubio missed his 24th straight game due to a sprained ankle.

Golden State has dominated the Northwest Division this season, improving to 6-0 on the season. With the win over Minnesota, Golden State have won nine straight home games, their longest home winning streak since the 1994 season where they won 10 straight.

The Warriors will have a chance to tie that 10-game home winning streak Tuesday with Michael Carter-Williams and the Philadelphia 76ers visiting Oracle Arena.

 

 

Stanford: Well-rounded with various interests heading into Foster Farms Bowl

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foster farms

By Morris Phillips

The Foster Farms Bowl is a meeting of also-ran 7-5 teams, but make no mistake, Stanford and Maryland, come from quite different places.

First off, Stanford is in its backyard, playing in Levi’s Stadium on Tuesday for the first time in the history of their program.  As the home of the Pac-12 Championship game for the foreseeable future, the Cardinal want to feel comfortable right away at the NFL facility that’s just 15 miles from campus.

Stanford’s prospects for a quick recovery from their first subpar season under David Shaw will be made clearer in the coming days, as quarterback Kevin Hogan and others will decide on returning to school for another season or declaring for the NFL draft.  Hogan is on schedule to graduate this spring, and could declare as he’s projected to be a late round draft pick, but he has another year of eligibility remaining.

Big wide receiver Devon Cajuste and All-American offensive tackle Andrus Peat are others considering leaving the Farm early.  Cornerback Wayne Lyons appeared to tip his hand by accepting an invitation to NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, a showcase for draftees.  But Coach David Shaw said Saturday that Lyons merely wanted to keep his options open and had not yet made a decision on declaring for the draft.

Not only has the NFL noticed Stanford, but so have the odds makers, who have the Cardinal 13-point favorites over Maryland, an Eastern seaboard transplant that took its lumps in an inaugural season in the Big Ten.  While Stanford lost five, each time to ranked teams, Maryland was blown out by new conference mates, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State.

Defensive back William Likely is about a clear cut an NFL prospect as the Terrapins have.  CBS Sports theorizes that Likely would have to score a fourth defensive touchdown this season just for Maryland to give Stanford a compelling game into the fourth quarter.

Stanford’s Ty Montgomery continues to hold out hope that he can be cleared to play in advance of Tuesday’s kickoff.  But the closest thing the Cardinal has to an offensive star hasn’t played since being injured in the Big Game against Cal a month ago.  Montgomery’s status is key: Stanford’s offense has been tepid all season and the 6’2” receiver gives them a legitimate big-play threat.  If Stanford can score some points, Maryland could be left pressed to beat the nation’s second stingiest defense.  Still, Shaw seemed resigned to having his team ready with or without Montgomery.

“I don’t have a feeling one way or another,” Shaw said. “It’s 50-50.  If he has a setback tomorrow, he can’t play.”

Kings beat the Knicks in OT 135-129

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30yr Kings logo

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings hung on in overtime to defeat the New York Knicks 135-129 on Saturday night. For the Knicks, it was their seventh loss in a row.

The key to Kings (13-17) victory was the return of DeMarcus Cousins to the lineup. Cousins missed the Phoenix game with the flu. Against the Knicks, Cousins scored 39 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out four assists and blocked two shots. He put up those numbers despite having to spend nine minutes of the third quarter and three minutes of the fourth on the bench due to four personal fouls.

Rudy Gay also had a big night for Sacramento. Gay recorded 29 points, two rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocked shots while being tasked with defending Carmelo Anthony for the entire game.

Darren Collison had another strong performance for the Kings. Collison recorded a double-double scoring 27 points and distributing 10 assists. He shot nine of 10 from the field while going three for three from beyond the 3-point arc.

Carmelo Anthony paced the Knicks (5-27) with 36 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and one steal. Tim Hardaway Jr. put up 19 points with 11 of those points coming in the fourth quarter.

Shane Larkin and Samuel Dalembert performed well coming off the bench. Larkin scored 14 while Dalembert put 11 to go with four blocked shots.

The Kings came out in the first quarter ready to play. Sacramento built a 15 point lead near the end of the quarter. Cousins and Gay scored 15 points each to give the Kings a 38-27 lead after the first period.

The Knicks came back to life in the second quarter led by Anthony’s nine points. Shane Larkin played the entire quarter and added six points. New York was 10 of 20 from the field while going 10 for 11 from the free throw line. The Knicks outscored the Kings 31-29 in the second. At halftime, Sacramento led New York 67-58.

The third quarter proved to be a draw as both teams scored 22 points each. Rudy Gay led the Kings with eight points while DeMarcus Cousins was on the bench with four personal fouls. Anthony and Larkin led the Knicks with six point apiece. At the end of three quarters, the Kings were clinging to an 89-80 lead.

In the fourth quarter, New York began to take advantage of the Kings missed shots by grabbing rebounds and setting up the fast break. The Knicks scored 14 fastbreak points to just four for the Kings. New York also worked the boards for second chance points scoring 10 with the extra opportunities. The Knicks outscored the Kings 37-28 in the fourth to tie the game. A Tim Hardaway fastbreak lay-up tied the game at 117 all to force the overtime period.

The Kings scored first in overtime on a Cousins lay-up. The teams traded baskets and were tied at 124 when Jose Calderon hit a six foot jump shot to give the Knicks their first lead of the night at 126-124. Cousins hit two free throws to tie the game at 126 all. The Kings went on a 9-0 run that allowed them to win the game 135-129.

After the game, Kings head coach Tyrone Corbin said, ‘”It was a very much needed win. Even though it wasn’t the prettiest basketball, we’ll take the win.”

Knicks head coach Derek Fisher analyzed the game by saying, “Well of course. First and foremost is the effort. I thought that they remained committed to each other as teammates no matter what the circumstances were. They just kept fighting out there.Most nights you have to have that in order to give yourself a chance to win and we had that tonight. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

The Kings now hit the road for a four game road trip. Sacramento will play in Brooklyn on Monday.

Game Notes: the Kings are now 8-10 at home and 3-1 in overtime games for the season … Cousins 39 points were a season high … Gay’s 29 points was his 18th 20 point or more game of the season …the Knicks are now 2-14 on the road.

Kings make it a special night

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(Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Pearl Allison Lo

LOS ANGELES–It was fitting that the game was won on special teams as Los Angeles took second place from the San Jose Sharks in a 3-1 win Saturday.

Coming into the game, the Sharks had the league-best power play, and both teams had recent hot streaks, the Kings on the power play and San Jose on the penalty kill.

However, Coach Todd McLellan added, “There is much more to it than that. A lot of the grinding part, and the hard part of the game, we were beat in those areas as well. They were better on the walls, they were better defending, taking time and space away. Their forecheck was better.”

McLellan later responded “…tonight was an opportunity for both teams to play under similar circumstances. I thought they were better than us, so that is a little bit disappointing. Both teams coming off the Christmas break and overtime losses.

The Sharks struck first. In Los Angeles’s zone, the Kings’ Justin Williams’ pass hit San Jose’s Joe Thornton, who quickly recovered the puck and passed to Joe Pavelski. Pavelski then shot with just one defender between him and goalie Jonathan Quick, deflecting off Quick into the net to make it 1-0, 2:39 into the game.

Los Angeles’s Tyler Toffoli had two chances to score and did not miss after his initial shot went off the boards to Jamie McBain. McBain gave the puck another trip across the front of the net as Toffoli tied the game at 14:04. Trevor Lewis had the second assist.

The Kings had 8-3 giveaways as they outhit (18-4) and outshot (12-6) San Jose, missing eight of the shots.

Special team opportunities dominated the second and the third. Los Angeles’s Drew Doughty said, “…we did a good job of staying out of the box the first couple of periods and then we killed off some big [power plays] in the third, so that was huge.” Pavelski noted, “It’s such a fine line sometimes with the power play…When we were a little aggressive it was probably not the right time.”

The Sharks’ penalty kill won over the Kings’ power play in the first round at 3:07.

Los Angeles’s power play won in the second round at 9:25. Marian Gaborik’s shot hit goalie Antti Niemi and Anze Kopitar put in the game winner, 12 seconds before the man advantage expired. Jeff Carter got the second assist. The last time the Sharks gave up a power play goal was seven games ago.

San Jose could not get a goal during the third round, which starting at 18:51, spanned two periods.

The Sharks’ Scott Hannan committed two penalties in the third and Jake Muzzin made it 3-1 off the first at 3:18. It was another second chance goal as Niemi saved Muzzin’s first shot. Doughty and Kopitar helped out.

San Jose had a second power play opportunity at 16:10, but went scoreless again. They had previously had power plays in five of their last seven games.

Game notes: The Sharks’ points streak ended at six. The Kings kept their season home loss streak at one and with at least one power play goal at home, are now 10-0-1. The recently called up Micheal Haley for San Jose played, instead of the suspended John Scott. The Sharks now head home to face the Canucks Tuesday at 7pm, before playing the Ducks on New Year’s Eve.

Terrapins return to the Bay Area

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By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-The game may have a different name and a different stadium, but it is still in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After being called the Walnut Bowl, Diamond Walnut Bowl, Emerald Bowl, Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, Fight Hunger Bowl, the game is now called the Foster Farms Bowl.

The first 12 games were played at AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants; however the game will now be played at Levi’s Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Making their second appearance in the game will be the Maryland Terrapins, who played the Oregon State Beavers in the 2007 Emerald Bowl and lost to their opponents by the final of 21-14.

The Terrapins will be facing the Stanford Cardinal, who will be making their and the Cardinal will face each other on the gridiron.

Randy Edsall brings his Terrapins to the Bay Area after their inaugural season in very competitive Big Ten that saw the Terrapins finish with a 7-4 record and 4-4 in the Big Ten Conference.

Away from Byrd Stadium in College Park, the Terrapins won five games, the most in the conference, and the highest for the program since Frank Reich was under center for theTerrapins in 1984.

Sixth-year quarterback C.J. Brown comes off a game where he passed for 195 yards and gained 107 yards on the ground, his ninth 100-yard rushing game.

Overall during his career in College Park, Brown ranks fifth in school history in passing yards and fourth in completions.

His nine career 100-yard rushing games are fourth in school history, with former Oakland Raiders running back Lamont Jordan, who topped the 100-yard plateau on 18 different occasions from 1997-2000.

Between his passing and rushing yards, Brown is only 213 yards from tying Scott Milanovich for the most all-purpose yards in school history.

Wide receiver Stefon Diggs leads the Terrapins with 52 catches and 654 yards.

Raiders podcast commentary: Sparano sets up for last game a win could get him coaching job

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders will have to wait and see on their decision to retain head coach Tony Sparano, Sparano won three out of his last five games and that’s great. Like we’ve been saying the last couple of years what you really want to see from this Raiders team is gradual improvement. The talent level is something that their still trying to figure out and as you see the team improved their results you will see them improve in their actual talent level and quality of play.

You have to give Sparano some credit the Raiders are definitely playing a lot better than they were under former head coach Dennis Allen. Sparano has been a head coach in the NFL before he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins and coincidentally he happened to be coach of the Dolphins about three and half years ago when both the 49ers and the Dolphins were trying to sign current 49er head coach Jim Harbaugh.

If you remember there was a big flurry of meetings between owners and Harbaugh, where the owner of the Dolphins actually stuck Harbaugh on his private jet and flew him out to Miami in a last second attempt to woo him to the Dolphins and when that didn’t work he announced his support for Sparano for the Miami job and the Sparano barely lasted the remainder of that season before he was fired. Sparano has some experience he just wasn’t very good with the Dolphins that’s why he got canned.

Sparano is doing a good job so far at the Raiders the talent level isn’t that deep and it’s not known yet if Sparano will be a good long term choice for Oakland as a head coach. Anybody who came in after Allen was going to do better, he had a few organizational skills in order to get the team to play with the playbook they were going to look better. The one thing you notice at the end of the Allen era they just weren’t executing at all.

When you have a team with little talent and they can’t execute their going to look terrible on the field. Let’s be fair there have been a couple of instances the Raiders looked terrible on the field remember they lost just a few weeks ago to the Rams 52-0. So it’s not it’s been wine and roses for the Raiders under Sparano. It’s great that they beat the 49ers and the Chiefs those are big games for them you always like to go against rivals and come out on top.

Sparano in those wins did well in that regard and he’s now put himself at least in the discussion as a head coaching candidacy and you have to look at what the Raiders are planning to do in the next few years. What do the Raiders want out of a new head coach? They want to make sure that Sparano is their guy. The fact of the matter is this is a team that doesn’t have any superstars, there is no player on this team that defines the Raiders.

If you look over at the 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick is the guy or Patrick Willis, Frank Gore is a free agent but Gore is the guy. There is a handful of players on the team who represent the 49ers, in the future the Raiders might have quarterback Derrick Carr or Latavius Murray or Khalil Mack. It’s all up and comers but on a national level when you think of the Raiders you don’t think of anybody because there is nobody good whose established themselves.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen below for David comments on the 49ers and Raiders

49ers commentary podcast: Harbaugh and 49ers will decide within 48 hrs after Sunday’s game

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh is still under contract with the 49ers for one more year so after Sunday’s game versus the Arizona Cardinals maybe he might have something to say about leaving the team and going elsewhere. The Niners aren’t going to do anything before this season is over and that’s all the rumors and speculation are just that. It seems that the way this is going to go down is Harbaugh is going to coach the game on Sunday and address this later.

Within about 48 hours of that he’ll probably be released out of his contract unless the 49ers somehow can figure out a way to trade him and it’s doesn’t seem very likely. Within 48 hours he’ll be released out of his contract the 49ers would like to get moving on their coaching search and they can’t do that until Harbaugh is relieved of his duties. Former Washington and Denver coach Mike Shanahan’s name has been thrown around as the next 49ers coach but it’s only speculation at this time.

At the same time Harbaugh if he does indeed want to coach at the University of Michigan which is the big rumor right now Michigan would want him signed as quickly as possible so he can get out and start recruiting right away. So the 49ers and Harbaugh both have reasons to get started and especially for the 49ers. If Harbaugh in fact is going to Michigan they obviously can’t trade him that doesn’t work you can’t trade between the college and the pros.

If this goes out as we think it will we’ll probably know by Tuesday what’s going on and maybe even sooner than that. The 49ers will probably wait 24-28 hours so Harbaugh can do whatever wrapping up he needs to do with the team. He can do some end of the season run downs and reviews with the players but beyond that Harbuagh is prepared and it’s just a matter of a few days and this last game with Arizona is a formality.

Was former 49er Ray McDonald a distraction to the team this season? The answer has to be yes, the players will always tell you that they focus what’s on the field and what goes on off the field is none of their concern and the fact of the matter there is a lot of good stuff surrounding the sexual assault issue now. That story was a big piece of news that wasn’t just an NFL news piece that was a national news piece.

The Ravens Ray Rice just elevated into the national consciousness and it was something you couldn’t avoid. It was a story that was everywhere and unless the players were living under a rock and frankly there are a few who do. You heard about this story and after Rice who got suspended initially McDonald was really the first case. The domestic violence allegation against him in September was the first case that came across the desk of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

McDonald took the full brunt of the scrutiny that came along with that national press report and any 49er who said that they weren’t paying attention and wasn’t distracted even a little bit is lying. Folks will say that because this was something that was lingering. Did it impact the 49ers play between the lines when the game was going on I doubt it. Knowing the way football players are they want to focus on is fantastic that’s what they do that’s their job.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

PHX runs away from the Kings 115-106

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IMG_0897.JPG

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Phoenix Suns (17-14) brought their “run and gun” basketball show to Sacramento on Friday night and went home with their fifth consecutive win beating the Kings 115-106.

The Suns are known for wanting to take the 3-point shot whenever possible. Against the Kings, they attempted 33 3-point shots and connected on 14 (42.4 percent). Everytime the Kings would make the score close, the Suns would hit a big 3-point basket and kill the Sacramento momentum.

Sacramento came into the game with a huge disadvantage because DeMarcus Cousins (Gastroenteritis), Ramon Sessions (low back strain) and Ryan Hollins (personal) were all unavailable to face Phoenix. The Kings knew they would need every player on the bench to step up and give their all to have any chance against a very talented and hot Suns team.

Phoenix had a four point lead (94-90) heading into the fourth quarter. Former King Isaiah Thomas became a “one man wrecking crew” leading the Suns with nine points in the final 12 minutes. The Suns built their largest lead of the night (15 points) with 5:12 to go in the game and then played ball control offense to use as much clock as possible to preserve the victory.

The Kings even tried using a three guard lineup in an attempt to close the gap on the Suns late in the fourth period. Darren Collison, Ben McLemore and Ray McCallum worked to get open in hopes of taking 3-point shots but were prevented from getting open looks from beyond the arc.

Phoenix shot 48.9 percent from the field (46-94) while shooting 42.4 percent (14-33) from 3-point land. The Suns went nine for 12 (75.0 percent) from the free throw line. Phoenix recorded 25 assists and 46 rebounds.

Marcus Morris led the Suns scoring with 20 points coming off the bench for Phoenix. Eric Bledsoe scored 18 points while Markieff Morris added 17. Goran Dragic scored 16 while Alex Len recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go with five blocked shots. Isaiah Thomas recorded 17 points coming off the bench against his former team.

The Kings were 41 for 93 (44.1 percent) from the field and were seven for 20 (35.0 percent) on 3-point attempts. Sacramento was 17 for 24 from the charity stripe. They had 48 rebounds and 18 assists.

Darren Collison was the Kings leading scorer with 19 points. Collison was four for seven on 3-point attempts and had two assists to go with three steals. Rudy Gay scored 16 to go with his five assists. Reggie Evans recorded a double-double (11 points, 16 rebounds) in his fill-in start for Cousins.

Derrick Williams scored 16 points off the bench including 11 in the first half to go with his perfect five for five field goal shooting. Ben McLemore (13), Carl Landry (12) and Omri Casspi (11) were all in double figures for Sacramento.

Speaking about Williams performance head coach Tyrone Corbin said, “I thought the energy he played with in the first half was good. He came in the second half, they made a run and the matchups didn’t match up as well for us in the second half. But he did a great job for us in the first half, had 16 (total) points.”

In analyzing the loss Corbin said, “Well you give up 25 fastbreak points, 19 second chance points. They made some shots; took 33 3-pointers and shot 42 percent from the 3-point line. Those were things we talked about before the game.started, keeping them out of our paint. The had too many opportunities to get in our paint, collapse out defense, and get open shots on the perimeter.”

The Kings have no time to relax and recover from the loss as they have to play the back-end of the home back-to-back games versus the New York Knicks on Saturday night.

Game notes: The Kings are now 12-17 overall and 7-10 at home … Sacramento and Phoenix have split the first two games of the series 1-1 … the Kings have scored 100 or more points in each of their last four games … the Kings have allowed their opponents to score 100 points or more in each of their last five games … Darren Collison has scored in double figures in each of his last four game.

Cal Bears podcast commentary: Wisconsin’s physical offensive presence stymied Cal all Monday night

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by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears (10-2) only two loses if you compare them they were equally important coming on the heels of a loss from Monday night to the Wisconsin Badgers (11-1) 68-56. One was not having a credible outside threat in the game with guard Jabiri Bird still on the bench for who knows how long. Without Bird it was difficult to have the offensive output and against Wisconsin your going to lose games against teams who are bigger and better than you are and as athletic as you are.

Wisconsin is a very, very good basketball team and they just outplayed Cal on Monday. When Cal goes back to look at the film the coaches and the players will realize they were missing a lot of easy shots early in the game and that was the problem. For the Badgers it was getting the easy shots, they were getting clean looks at the basket up close and lay ups that were uncontested. The Bears were working on ball strength and they just weren’t getting the results.

For Wisconsin they were getting the results much easier than it was for Cal, the Badgers head coach Bo Ryan was very complimentary he said that Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin’s career was in the Big Ten and he always said that he was always a tenacious defender and played always hard on the court and Ryan hoped that he would coach teams that would be the same way and that’s a very excellent compliment coming from an excellent coach.

The Badgers have beaten Cal in the last three years and they’ve met Wisconsin in a tournament within the last three years. This is an interesting season Kravish came on with great things that were expected and he’s had a great career and has been steadily improving. You thought “wow he’s got all that experience” on the team and you would have high expectations for him. This is not the coach that recruited him and this is not the coach that he’s had the last three years.

There is an adjustment going on here everybody is saying the right things, but Kravish misses Montgomery’s offensive sets and he misses the offense that goes through him under Montgomery. I have to be honest with you this is a hard system to readapt to and Kravish misses Justin Cobbs. The Bears get ready to battle the CSU Bakersfield Raodrunners (2-10) on Sunday night and if it’s competitive for over ten minutes the Bears are in deep trouble. Bakerfield was a national champion as a Division two team a few years ago but since they arrived in Division one ball they are now in waters that are way over their head.

The Roadrunners are ranked 305th amongst the D-One schools in the nation, if this game is competitive for ten minutes I think that coach Martin will pull out the one hair he has left. With the Badgers coming last Monday and how do you prepare for them, how do you put a scout team out there with 6’8, 6’9 players when you don’t have it yourself. The Bears starters are not even that big, so how does Cal get ready to play and prepare offensive sets against a team that big.

The Badgers are not really burly but they transition well, they don’t turn the ball over and neither team turned the ball over and both teams had six turnovers. Wisconsin was averaging over eight per game, which is on of the best in the nation, they don’t commit fouls, they have the five lowest foul call teams. They were number five in the nation with calls against them add the fact that everything that Cal got earlier and they were only getting tough shots you could actually see evidence of that on the stat sheet. The Wisconsin Badgers were a big and tough opponent for Cal on Monday night at Haas Pavilion.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover Cal Men’s basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Warriors go cold in 4th quarter, drop second straight

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By Robert Steward

LOS ANGELES–

Playing without big men Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli, both of whom were out with injuries, the Golden State Warriors went with a smaller lineup against the Los Angeles Clippers. Playing their second game in a row at the Staples Center following a disappointing loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, the Warriors watched the Clippers shoot poorly in the first quarter and then did the same themselves in the 4th quarter as they were defeated, 100-86.

Following a stretch where the Clippers played 4 games in 5 days, including 4 different time zones, their fatigue showed as they started the game ice cold from the floor. After making their first shot, on a dunk, the Clips proceeded to miss their next 16 in a row. Despite shooting an atrocious 4 of 24 from the floor, Los Angeles only trailed, 20-18, after the first quarter. Jamal Crawford was the lone bright spot for the Clips, coming off the bench to score 10, including a pair of 3-point shots late in the quarter. Golden State shot better in the quarter, 9 for 21 from the floor, but the smaller lineup hurt the Warriors as the Clippers got second-chance shots following their offensive rebounds.

The shooting woes continued for Los Angeles into the second quarter as the Clippers trailed, 34-24, with 5:09 left in the half. At that point the Clips had only hit 7 of 36 from the floor, while the Warriors were 15 for 29. But the top guns for Golden State, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, were quiet in the first half. Towards the end of the quarter, LA started to come alive. After Blake Griffin had missed his first 8 shots, he made a dunk and then J.J. Redick, after missing his first 5 shots, hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 42-39 with 48 seconds left. Chris Paul hit 2 free throws with 30 seconds left to close out the scoring in the first half, trailing Golden State, 42-41, at the break. That the Clippers were down by only 1 at halftime was something of a Christmas miracle due to the fact that they shot only 28% from the floor, including 3 of 17 from beyond the arc. Crawford led Los Angeles with 12 points. The Warriors, while shooting 45% from the floor at the halfway mark, were only 3 of 13 from 3-point land themselves. Los Angeles had a 9-3 advantage in offensive rebounds.

Both teams started better in the third quarter, getting their transition game into gear with more of an up tempo pace. Matt Barnes gave the Clippers their first lead of the game since the opening moments with a jumper to make it 56-55 with 7:18 left in the quarter. The Warriors answered with a 3-pointer from Draymond Green and 1 of 2 free throws from Klay Thompson. But the Clippers then got it going with a 3 from Redick to tie it, along with a pretty reverse alley-oop from Paul to DeAndre Jordan. Paul then put Curry in the spin cycle with a nice fake and a driving layup, all the while being fouled by Curry. Paul hit the free throw to complete the 3-point play then followed it up with a 3-point shot of his own to complete an 11-2 Clippers run to lead, 67-61, forcing Golden State to call a timeout with 3:51 left in the quarter. In addition to the obvious difference on the offensive boards, Los Angeles went to the line twice as much as the Warriors, hitting 16 of 22 from the charity stripe, versus 5 of 11 for the Warriors as Paul closed out the third quarter with another nice fake on Justin Holiday, leading to another driving layup as the Clippers lead, 73-70, heading into the 4th.

A bright spot off the bench for the Warriors was David Lee, who hit all 5 of his shots from the floor to finish with 11 points in 19 minutes of playing time. After Lee’s dunk with 9:17 left to cut the Clippers lead to 78-74, the Warriors could not buy a bucket from the floor. They missed their next 10 shots from the floor as the Clippers went on a 19-3 run to pull away to a 97-77 lead with 2:55 left. Holiday broke the drought with a trey at the 2:40 mark. Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 15 points, but only hit 2 of 10 from beyond the arc. Curry finished with 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists but also committed 5 turnovers. Harrison Barnes had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Green also had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

For the Clippers, Crawford led all scorers with with 24 points in 28 minutes off the bench. Paul had 22 points, DeAndre Jordan had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and after missing his first 8 shots, Griffin finished with 18 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists. The Clippers held the advantage from the free-throw line, sinking 23 of 31, while the Warriors were only 12 of 22. Los Angeles improved to 20-10, while the Warriors dropped to 23-5. Golden State returns home to Oracle Arena on Saturday at 7:30pm when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves.