The Los Angeles Clippers dropped their fourth straight matchup coming out of the All-Star break. It was a 70-35 onslaught in the second half that saw the Warriors come back from down 11 at the half to lead by 15 after three quarters of play. The talk of social media early in the game was Russell Westbrook being defended disrespectfully by Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green.

Just minutes into Thursday's Clippers-Warriors game, the Dubs set the tone defensively by significantly sagging off Russell Westbrook and packing the paint while forcing him to make decisions with the basketball.

Westbrook finished the game with eight points, six assists, and four turnovers on just 3-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 from 3-point range. The Clippers guard had a pair of turnovers in the third quarter that helped ignite a Warriors comeback victory.

“The game plan worked for us tonight,” Draymond Green said of the Warriors' defense on Russell Westbrook. “We got Russ to miss some shots. I think when you have a game plan like that — I know everyone will always judge Russ’ jumpshot, but what that does to you mentally is tough. I think it was more so the mental than his shot. He’s been shooting the ball well. I think he’s shooting the 3 at 33 or 34 percent. But mentally, that can get tough. I thought we did a good job of sticking with the game plan, and we was able to muck it up on the defensive side. It ended up working out for us.

“It’ll make you think for sure, because you’re open every play. You’re taught in basketball, ‘You’re open, take the shot.' But if you’re open every play, you kind of start questioning yourself. So I thought we did a good job executing.”

After the game, Russell Westbrook was asked about the abstract defense he saw from Draymond Green and the Warriors that left him out on an island a number of times.

“Just be aggressive,” Russell Westbrook said after the loss. “Find ways to be effective. I thought I did a great job of it in the first half. Second half, struggled to make shots. I had opportunities to be able to swing, make plays, and do anything I needed to do, and I just missed some shots too, it’s alright. Get ready for the next one.”

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The Clippers' 0-4 record since adding Russell Westbrook has a lot of people blaming him, but Kawhi Leonard believes the team has had enough in the locker room to close out teams like the Kings, Nuggets, or Wolves.

“I don't think that has anything to do with us losing games,” added Kawhi Leonard. “We got players that's playing that could win these games, we were up pretty much in that Sac (Sacramento) game we were up late and tonight we were up at halftime and last game we had a lead, so we just got to be able to sustain the lead.”

Thursday night's defense was the first time teams employed that level of sagging off Westbrook since he joined the Clippers. It has been employed on him before, so it'll be interesting to see if other teams use that moving forward.

The Clippers will take on the upstart Sacramento Kings Friday night, and they'll do so without the services of Leonard due to injury management.