Warriors: Curry erupts at referee, takes anger out on Clippers

The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers went into Sunday afternoon’s matchup as the two best defenses in basketball. For much of the game and particularly the first half, that fact was excruciatingly on display.

The first half was littered with turnovers, missed shots and an overall battle for either team to find their offensive rhythm. Although the defensive prowess of both teams was undoubtedly a factor, both coaches would have been lamenting their lack of potency, leaving fans frustrated at their side’s missed opportunities.

Having surprisingly been a top rebounding team this season, the Warriors showed their vulnerability in that aspect early in the contest. They gave up seven offensive rebounds in the first 12 minutes, allowing the Clippers to take a four-point lead.

The Golden State Warriors overcame a lackluster first half to win another game on the road behind Stephen Cury’s brilliance.

As frustrating as that was for Warriors fans, their Clippers counterparts would have been in a similar state watching their team grind away to just 18 points in the second quarter. The dubs weren’t much better, but their 24 points were enough to take a two-point lead into the second half.

The much-lauded Warrior third quarter threatened to showcase again, Stephen Curry moving to 20 points and the Warriors an 11 point lead four minutes into the third. The Clippers battled back and just like the game itself, Paul George started to heat up.

Then, with the Warrior lead just one and the offense largely struggling outside the MVP favorite, Jordan Poole exploded with four three-pointers in less than three minutes. The final one, a heat check that banked in, gave the Warriors a 75-68 with a quarter to play.

After beginning to simmer throughout the second half, the game reached boiling point when Curry took aggrievance to an obvious missed foul call with 9:07 remaining. When he attempted to finish a drop-off pass from Otto Porter Jr. on a two-on-one fast break, he seemingly took heavy contact from Terrence Mann. The referee disagreed and call it out of bounds, inviting a furious response from Curry the likes of which are rarely seen.

But instead of letting it dwell and negatively impacting the remainder of the game, the two-time MVP took his anger out on the Clippers instead. He added a series of triples in the next four minutes, blowing the Warriors lead to 18 on the back of another 30 point game. The moment of the night came after one of those threes, an extremely difficult one over two Clipper defenders. Curry stood and gave a fiery ‘T’ signal, still upset about the refereeing decision made minutes earlier.

It was the signature moment from another Curry masterpiece, delivering the Warriors their 18th win of the season. The 105-90 win also keeps their season-long streak of 100+ scores intact, something that looked under threat at half time.

Golden State Warriors v Los Angeles Clippers: Two Key Stats

1. Warriors reverse turnover battle

In their first meeting last month, Golden State nearly squandered a Curry masterclass by committing 21 turnovers in contrast to the Clippers’ seven. The shoe was on the other foot this time around, the Warriors committing 16 turnovers but forcing LA into 24.

That alleviated the four extra offensive rebounds the Clippers had, preventing it from being a bigger issue than what the first quarter may have suggested. With the Clippers not gaining an advantage in those areas, they simply didn’t have the talent or depth to go with the Dubs through the full four quarters.

2. Nineteen 

That’s the number of games Steph Curry took to reach 100 threes this season, breaking his own NBA record of 20 games set in both the 2015/16 and 2018/19 seasons. Just like in Brooklyn and Cleveland previously, Curry received MVP chants in an opposing stadium. What he’s doing is unprecedented, unrivaled and shouldn’t be taken for granted.

The Warriors now go into arguably the biggest game of the season, traveling to Phoenix to take on the Suns on Tuesday.