Warriors lose to the Clippers - Free Throws Aren't Free
Wiggins and Paschall combine for only 4 less points than the dynamic duo of Kawhi and Paul George. The Warriors had a better FG percentage than the number three team in the West and had 6 less turnovers. The perfect formula for a Warriors... loss!?
When Steph Curry only goes for 13 and 1/6 on threes, it doesn't help. They still could have overcome their star's poor shooting performance but couldn't get it done behind the either the free throw line or the three point line. The Clippers shot a perfect 19/19 from the free throw line and gained 10 points over the Warriors from there. The Warriors must've used up all their threes vs the Kings and only shot 26.7% from there last night. Wanamaker had the best +/- for the Dubs with +8. Thanks mostly to the late 3rd qtr/early 4th qtr run put together by the line up of Paschall, Wiggins, Lee, Bazemore and Wanamaker. Once Steph reentered the game, Draymond got a flagrant foul and they gave up consecutive three balls, it was over.
A wasted great defensive effort (held Clippers to .532 2P% and .324 3P%) by not being able to capitalize on offensive opportunities. The defensive effort felt encouraging for their next matchup with the Clippers on Friday until Steph Curry tweaked his ankle. It doesn't look serious but if he misses Friday's game we can expect a lot of "developmental minutes" for the younger players.
