Rewind: Warriors blown out by Clippers, Draymond not worried

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LOS ANGELES -– Eight technical fouls between teams in a preseason game is exceedingly rare, and suggestive of acute animosity.

We give you the Warriors and the Clippers and a moderately bizarre 130-95 Clippers win Tuesday night at Staples Center.

The Warriors played poorly and without their usual gumption. They were without Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala, who were given the night off by interim coach Luke Walton. They were without center Andrew Bogut, who was in the Bay Area recovering from surgery on his broken nose.

The Clippers, by stark contrast, played with their complete roster – and with an alacrity suggesting something of consequence were at stake.

And maybe, to them, there was.

“They were playing hard,” Walton said. “You can’t blame them for that.”

[POOLE: Livingston upset with Griffin, Clippers after Warriors' loss]

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Center Festus Ezeli chalked it up to the Warriors’ exalted status as defending champs. Forward Brandon Rush and center/forward Marreese Speights both implied the Clippers placed an emphasis on this game beyond that of a typical preseason matchup.

Maybe. The Warriors, after all, beat their rivals three of four times last season en route to winning an NBA Championship. The Clippers were one win away from meeting the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals before an epic meltdown – blowing a 3-1 series lead in the semifinals.

So victory over the Warriors, no matter when, or how, probably brings a modicum of comfort to their collective psyche.

The Clippers started fast and cranked up the physicality – they were whistled for five technical fouls – and eventually pushed a 10-point lead to 20, then 30 and as high as 36.

And the Warriors simply did not respond. Did they not have it in them?

“It was a very, very sloppy game for us, definitely not the style of play that we want,” Ezeli said.

“We missed 20 free throws,” forward Draymond Green said, though the actual count was 17. “We didn’t execute well all the time. We had our moments. There’s a lot of stuff we can tune up and we will. We’ll be fine.”

That’s the general belief, that this game was anomaly and highly unlikely to occur in the regular season. The numbers, to be sure, were gruesome in most every aspect.

The Warriors, for whom defense is so important, allowed Los Angeles to shoot 54.9 percent – and score at least 30 points in every quarter. The Warriors lost the rebounding battle (44-42), the turnovers battle (committing 23 to the Clippers’ 17) and the assists contest (27-20). And that’s just the beginning.

“I know we have guys that are ready for the (season) to get started,” Walton said. “But at the same time, we keep giving up 60-something points in the first half and 30 in the first quarter . . . it is possible to turn it on. It just doesn’t happen very often.”

The Warriors are about to find out. They clearly had a different objective in this game than did the Clippers, as Walton conceded to mixing lineups to the degree that reached a level of experimentation.

And that never changed, even as the Clippers continued their hard-charging ways.

The Warriors did prevail in one area. They were whistled for three technical fouls, while the Clippers were nailed for five. LA point guard Chris Paul in the third quarter picked up two in a matter of seconds and was ejected.

That is somewhat illustrative of the bumping and clutching that went on.

“Chippy play is not as exciting when one team is up for 40,” Walton said.

Oh, that wasn’t very chippy at all. For legitimate chippiness, check out these teams in the regular season. Their first meeting is Nov. 4 in Oakland, with the second in LA on Nov. 19.

Consider all parties warned.

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