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Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors suffered a brutal loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on the final day of the regular season. The loss sent the Warriors to a play-in tournament matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, while the Clippers clinched the fifth seed and set up a date with the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite getting 36 points from Curry and 30 points from Jimmy Butler, the Warriors blew a 12-point lead and couldn't make enough plays down the stretch to defeat the Clippers. But the biggest reason the Warriors lost was historically poor rebounding.
Golden State makes embarrassing history in loss vs. Clippers
Stephen Curry finished the game with 36 points, three rebounds, six assists, and two steals, while Jimmy Butler added 30 points, one rebound, and nine assists. Draymond Green, normally a force on the glass, finished with just 14 points, three rebounds, four assists, and two blocked shots.
James Harden poured in 39 points for the Clippers with seven rebounds and 10 assists, while Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out seven assists.
On the night game, the Warriors gave up nine offensive rebounds to the Clippers, which led to 14 second-chance points for the Clippers. Golden State, however, only finished with 25 rebounds as a team in the overtime loss.
The 25 rebounds marked the third fewest rebounds in a game that went to overtime in all of NBA history, ahead of only the 1950-51 Indianapolis Olympians, who had 22 rebounds in a six overtime game, and the 1991-92 Sacramento Kings, who collected 24 rebounds in an overtime game.
“There's a want-to effect, like you can't be casual,” Stephen Curry said of the Warriors ‘ poor rebounding efforts. “You can't just take for granted that the ball is going to come your way, even if it's in your vicinity. You've got to go get one. There was one Ben Simmons had on the baseline. Me and BP were around there, and I kind of casually went for it.
“It's like, just take what's yours. There's a mentality around it, and for the majority of the game, we didn't have that. And those possessions add up. We gave six more offensive rebounds, and they had 17 more rebounds in general, so like, they're a bigger team, and if we have a chance to get it, securing those possessions matter. You don't want to lose sleep over it, but you want to make sure you address it moving forward.”
The Clippers finished with 42 rebounds, 17 of which came from center Ivica Zubac. Zubac also grabbed four offensive rebounds, which was more than the Warriors as a team (three).
There were 23 lead changes and eight ties in a game that saw the Clippers lead for 27 minutes and 37 seconds and by as many as seven points, while the Warriors led for 20 minutes and 15 seconds and led by as many as 12 points. The game was also tied for a grand total of five minutes and eight seconds.
“You pretty much saw it,” Stephen Curry said on how the Warriors tried to overcome the rebounding deficit. “We had some heroics, me in the second half, Jimmy [Butler] in the first half, Draymond hitting big shots. Like, all of those were just to stay afloat and stay in the game. If you can just get maybe, three of my turnovers, let's get six or seven more rebounds, that's 10 more shots you can probably get on the rim and see what happens. Against a good team like that. You're not expecting to blow the Clippers out. That's one or two or three possessions here or there that make a difference in momentum and down the stretch. That's frustrating for sure.”
“It's tough to win,” Draymond Green added of the 17-rebound differential. “We also didn't get a lot of loose balls. Rebounding is one thing, but then some of these loose balls that are just bouncing, and we're not getting them. The long rebounds, they're loose, we're not getting. We've got to be better at getting loose balls.
The Warriors will now host the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night, a team they've had some success with of late. Golden State went 3-1 against Memphis this season, with the Warriors also going 23-7 in the 30 games since acquiring Jimmy Butler.
“Ja's been playing incredible, shooting the ball really well,” Draymond Green added of the upcoming matchup with the Grizzlies. “Jaren's playing great all year. Bane's come back after having a tough start to the year with some injuries and different things. He's turned back into the Desmond Bane that signed a $200 million, or whatever his contract was, the reason he got that contract. Battled through a lot of injuries last year, coming into the year, battling some injuries, and he's found his footing. They're a really good ball club, but I think our coaching staff will have a great game plan. We have to make sure we go execute it.”
Tuesday night's play-in game is scheduled to tip off at 7 PM PST on TNT.
