Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Clippers Two Key Stats
1. Turnovers nearly kill Warriors chances
Outside of Curry’s brilliance, the glaring takeaway was the turnover differential between the two teams, the 21-7 differential leading to the Warriors taking 12 fewer field goal attempts.
Their 48.4 percent shooting from deep ultimately compensated for the carelessness in possession, along with the rebounding which they won for a second straight game (53-38).
Although it’s something they’ll definitely need to work on, don’t be surprised to see some games like this given their up-tempo, high-passing scheme.
2. We’re going to see a lot of small ball
For much of the game, we saw both teams employ small ball line-ups, both out of necessity as each team lacks in genuine bigs, but also to combat each other’s offenses. Kevon Looney and Nemanja Bjelica combined for around 30 minutes of playing time, whilst Zubac played just over 17 for the Clippers.
To be fair to the Clippers, Zubac was a -13 in the game meaning when they did go smaller, they provided a much greater threat on both ends of the floor.
We know the Warriors’ best lineup has Green at the five, and I ultimately think teams will have to combat this by also going smaller. Like we saw against the Lakers, the Warriors ball movement can cut teams to pieces when a big, traditional center is on the floor.