Even with four of five starters out injured, the Los Angeles Clippers were able to beat up the defending champion Golden State Warriors, 125-106. Playing without Stephen Curry (ankle) and Klay Thompson (rest) did not seem like an impediment for Kevin Durant and Draymond Green to get a win against a team whose best player in the lineup is — arguably — DeAndre Jordan. Durant's 40-point night was not enough to beat an ailing Clippers team. Usual sixth man Louis Williams got a starting spot and efficiently scored 50 points while proving he is the backcourt leader the team should rely on while the starters recover.
During post-game media availability, Kevin Durant was asked about Williams effective performance. The Athletic's Anthony Slater shared KD's words after the loss:
“Yeah, he got it going with the pick-and-roll, when he's going left it is hard to stop him because, him going left for a pull-up three, that's a cash shot for him, that's what he does. So he got it going, in the pick-and-roll, and we were just a little too loose on him, you know, we let him go wherever he wanted. He ordered a 50-piece
McNuggets on us tonight. I mean, somebody scored 50 on you, the way he did, you just gotta pay homage and move on.”
After the final buzzer sounded, Williams' stat line was 50 points, seven assists, and two rebounds on 16-from-27 shooting from the field with four turnovers. It was a bad game overall for the Warriors, as they allowed the Clippers to connect on 45.8 percent of their three-point shots and got outrebounded 46 to 32. Draymond Green missed all but one of the nine shots he attempted, and Nick Young went only 3-for-11 for the field.
There are no excuses for the defending champs, as they expect to bounce back from this deflating loss as they travel to Milwaukee to face the Bucks tomorrow. The Clippers face the Kings at Sacramento tonight and hope their team can keep their momentum going while Blake Griffin recovers from a concussion.
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