Rewind: Warriors ‘continued to fight,' Clippers crumble again

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LOS ANGELES – Once whispered about around the NBA, that the Clippers lack mental toughness, the word is fully out, so loud, so clear and so obvious that most any team feels it can exploit them.

That’s what the Warriors did Thursday night at Staples Center. They were down 20 in the first quarter, down 23 in the second. They were down 10 with five minutes remaining.

They were down, however, to the LA Clippers, and that means a rally is certain, a comeback inevitable and victory quite likely.

So the Warriors were not particularly impressed with themselves after extinguishing double-digit deficits and rolling out of Los Angeles with a 124-117 conquest to push their record to 13-0 – making them the third team in last 58 years to open a season with 13 consecutive wins.

The Clippers opened the door, as they often do, and the Warriors charged through, with Steph Curry (40 points, 11 rebounds) leading the way.

“We were down 16 or 18 with six minutes to go in the first quarter,” Draymond Green said. “I just told our guys that we had 42 minutes left in the game. That’s a lot of time. We just continued to fight. And even when they were hitting everything, it still never felt like they were just controlling the game.

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“When it’s like that, you’ve got a shot at winning.”

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Never more than with the Clippers, a squad with a notoriously fragile psyche most prominently displayed last postseason. After going up 3-1 on Houston in the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals, they blew a 19-point lead at home in Game 6 – and, following that, the series.

So when the Clippers shot 70.8 percent in taking a 41-25 lead after one quarter, the Warriors kept calm. When LA went up 55-32 with 7:26 left in the first half, the Warriors stayed calm. They always know their opponent, and they know this one exceedingly well. Only 15 days earlier, in Oakland, the Warriors overcame a 10-point deficit in the final eight minutes to stun the Clippers.

“That was pretty fun to watch our guys fight back like that after the first quarter the Clippers had,” interim coach Luke Walton said. “We just kept telling them, ‘Just keep chipping away.’ “

That the Clippers tend to crack like glass under a hammer is not something uttered in public. It’s mostly unspoken, yet widely acknowledged – even by the Clippers.

“When we’re up by 10 with six (actually five) minutes left, we have to find a way to win the game,” said Clippers star Chris Paul, who scored 23 points in the first half and 12 in the second.

“We have got to do a better job of playing 48 minutes,” Clippers veteran Paul Pierce said. “That’s two games in a row versus these guys where we have had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.”

The Warriors at the start didn’t look ready to play. They were a little sloppy and extremely lethargic on defense. Curry and Green both picked up two quick fouls, which pretty much forced the Warriors out of their usual playing rotations. As it was, they were without backup point guard Shaun Livingston (strained hip flexor) and backup shooting guard Leandro Barbosa (flu).

“We played some lineups that hadn’t played together all year and they were out there talking and trying to make plays for each other,” Walton said.

Mo Speights, usually a center, replaced Green. Andre Iguodala, usually a point forward, replaced Curry. And for the better part of three quarters, nothing much changed, except the energy in the room when the Warriors cut the margin to single digits late in the third.

Outscored 55-32 in the first 17 minutes, the Warriors routed LA 92-62 over the final 31.

“We finally got stops and stopped turning the ball over, which starts with me,” Curry said after his second straight game with seven turnovers.

“We did everything we could in the first half to give them the game, and we finally got back to playing our brand of basketball down the stretch.”

Not that they would come out and say it, but the Warriors surely knew they could do precisely that against this particular opponent.

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