The Los Angeles Clippers may have fallen to the Golden State Warriors 108-112 Wednesday night, and the bench (mainly Jamal Crawford) may have been terrible at times, but there are some significant positives to takeaway from the game. The rest of the second unit played well at times (especially when Doc Rivers mix-and-matched them with a starter or two), Blake Griffin put in another great performance, and the whole team actually out-shot the Warriors with a field goal percentage of 48.9 to 45.9.
More importantly, though, they only lost to the defending champions by four points in Oracle Arena, which was so loud it sounded like the roof could blow off at any moment. Furthermore, while the Warriors have made minimal changes since last season and can pick up where they left off, the Clippers are still in an adjustment stage as their new bench develops together.
With all those factors in mind, the Clippers should feel pleased with how they played. And they should feel even more pleased with the resolve and heart they showed to stick in the game and even take several leads late in the second half. They went down by 17 points in the second quarter, and many other teams would have got overwhelmed against the Warriors in Oracle by that point.
When DeAndre Jordan was asked after the game if any moments would stick with him, he quickly made it clear that he’s over the loss already (as Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times relayed on Twitter).
Were there moments that would stick with DeAndre Jordan from the Clippers' loss to Warriors? "No, absolutely not. It’s the fifth game, bro."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) November 5, 2015
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While there’s plenty to takeaway and improve on from the game (mainly just when it comes to the bench), Jordan has the right attitude to not let anything stick with him. They’ve played just five games out of 82, and they’re barely getting started in their 2015-16 campaign to go after a title.
Overall, the Clippers’ bench played fairly well at times last night. They helped spark a run in the third quarter to outscore the Warriors by 11 while Chris Paul was on the bench with four fouls, and Austin Rivers, Josh Smith and Wesley Johnson hustled hard and all contributed at least five points over the game. It was their intensity that helped the Clippers create a 10 point lead with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter, but they just weren’t able to hang on.
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The poor play of Jamal Crawford was a reason why. He took several shots early on in the shot clock, took ill advised threes in transition, dribbled too much and pulled-up for contested long twos, and ultimately shot 4-of-15 from the floor.
At times, he’s electric off the bench, but his shot has to be falling. That wasn’t the case Wednesday night, and instead he showed how terrible his shot selection and lack of passing can be at times.
As the game wound down, the score swung in favor of the defending champs. Harrison Barnes scored 10 straight points for the Warriors with just a few minutes left and Stephen Curry came through with a host of big threes (seven in total, to be precise) and the effort of the Clippers was undone.
They fought incredibly hard, but it wasn’t quite enough against a red-hot Warriors team who already seem to be in top form.
When the Clippers have more time to perfect their various lineups and bench play, though, next time could easily be different.