Game Information

Where: Chase Center, San Francisco, CA

When: 7:30 PM PT

How to Watch: TNT, AM 570

Projected Starting Lineups

Warriors: Damion Lee – Mychal Mulder – Andrew Wiggins – Juan Toscano-Anderson – Marquese Chriss 

Clippers: Patrick Beverley – Paul George – Kawhi Leonard – Marcus Morris – Ivica Zubac

Injuries

Warriors: Kevon Looney (Out: hip); Draymond Green (Out: Knee) Stephen Curry (Questionable: illness)

Clippers: None

The Big Picture

The Clippers are now, famously, 10-1 with their full roster available. This includes six wins in their last seven games with their roster intact as of late. The Warriors, to put it lightly, are experiencing the opposite: they aren’t healthy, and aren’t playing well. They had a short-lived sense of optimism when Steph Curry came back into the lineup, but he’s sidelined again with the flu.

The Clippers, with wins against the Nuggets, Thunder, and Rockets, have shown they are capable of beating good teams. Tonight, they will need to show that they are no longer playing down to their opponents — something that good teams generally don’t do yet has haunted the Clippers thus far this season.

This game will also be an opportunity to further their lead over the Nuggets in the playoff standings. The Lakers loss on Sunday dampened the idea that the Clippers could make a play at catching the Lakers for the one-seed, but the Clippers have a real chance at putting some distance between themselves and Denver. With the Bucks, Mavericks, Lakers, our Clippers, Thunder, and Raptors on their upcoming schedule, the Clippers should try to put the two-seed away now so they can rest Kawhi and others late in the season. 

The Antagonist

This is a Trap Game: coming off the emotional rollercoaster of playing and losing to the Lakers might leave the Clippers unfocused going into this game. Moreover, the Warriors and Clippers, sneakily, have a bit of a rivalry. Last year, the Clippers embarrassed the then-defending Champs in the first round of last year’s playoffs, so we can assume the Warriors won’t roll over easily. The Chase Center will also undoubtedly be sold out for the Clippers last visit to the Bay, so the Clippers need to come out energized from the start.   

Notes

• Joakim Noah: Noah is only on a 10-day contract, so the Clippers will likely want to see him in action before they’re forced to decide if they want him for the rest of the season or not. If the Clippers don’t find themselves with a big lead, I think Doc might try to fit him in for a few minutes during the middle of the third quarter with at least two starters (this is just a shot-in-the-dark guess).

• Marcus Morris, Sr.: Morris was pretty bad against the Lakers on Sunday, and spoke about his shooting struggles with Andrew Greif of the LA Times. Look for Doc to try and get him some easy looks to get his confidence back. 

• The Center Position: Doc still hasn’t found the right balance between Trez and Zubac (and we haven’t even started to investigate the Noah question). As Duby Dub Dubs of Let’s Go Warriors told our Robert Flom, Marquese Chriss has been a positive for the Warriors this year. Hopefully he gives the Clippers a little bit of a challenge so Doc can practice his rotation at the Center position.

Clippers vs. Warriors Game Preview
Kenneth Armstrong

We did a Q&A session with Let’s Go Warriors, our sister site that was remade in the image of the old Golden State of Mind blog on SB Nation. My answers to Duby’s questions are here, and his answers to mine are below!

Duby: Thanks for taking the time to do this! Before we hop into the game coverage, care to plug your new site?

Robert Flom: Hey man! Thanks for setting this up! And sure – myself and the rest of the former Clips Nation crew have set up a new Clippers site, 213Hoops, which is free of the corporate limitations of Vox Media and SB Nation. We pay all of our contributors, we don’t have post quotas, and it’s been a great first month. How’s your new site going?

Duby: I’ll have to talk to you offline about all the logistical decisions you’ve made over there. I love the clean look of your site – it seems like something both of our groups prioritized and something that the communities have embraced. Mostly though, it just feels great to have pulled off something that works for most of our readers – and extra heart warming to see your group and the Kings blog successfully pull away from Vox and SB Nation. 

Rob: How has the transition been from perennial championship contender to bottom-dweller? Has it been awful, or have the lower stakes actually proven to be a bit of fun?

Duby Dub Dubs: Oh, it’s definitely been painful – but the extent of that pain is largely contingent on who you are as a fan. For me, the ephemeral nature of this year is really helping. You look at the roster and know that we’ve got Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson coming back next season, and it helps all the losses go down a little easier. 

There’s some benefit from this gap year too. After getting so top heavy for so long, the Warriors are all the way out of salary cap room and in dire need of some fresh new legs. They’ve gotten out of that situation pretty adeptly by making some tough roster decisions (like flipping D’Angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins) and scraping the NBA talent pool pipe to find gems like Marquese Chriss. Plus, the team did all that while grabbing a bunch of future drafts assets – while also playing their way down into good position for the #1 pick in the upcoming draft as well.  

But as Clippers fans that’ve been around for a couple of decades can attest to, there’s a much darker reality of being stuck with a franchise that is truly bad. Watching bad roster choices and missed talent opportunities slip through an organization year after year was much harder on the Warriors’ fans than a single year of embracing the tank. 

Rob: What young players, if any, have separated themselves from the pack as true complementary pieces to groom around Steph, Klay, and Draymond in the years to come?

Duby: Really, the only silver lining from the total disaster of this season has been how much slack the Warriors have been able to grant a lot of the fringe players. After swinging and missing with guys like Jacob Evans, and Pat McCaw, it looks like the Warriors have hit on some solid bench guys. 

The most exciting guy with a lot of upside is probably rookie Eric Paschall. The Warriors grabbed him with the 11th pick in the second round, so any meaningful success is already against the odds. 

But ever since Summer League, he’s been showing more and more frequent flashes of dominant play. He’s one of those big, quick guys that plays like a LeBron-lite; too big for the quick guys, and too quick for the big guys. 

Also, the Warriors have been thrilled with what they’ve gotten out of former Phoenix Sun, Marquese Chriss. Ever since JaVale McGee, this team has known that a rim running guy who can play with some semblance of being able to dribble and pass can thrive in this system alongside the spacing of Curry and Thompson. The team has used this year to play fast and loose with the roster, and have gotten some good results.

As you can tell from the team’s record, these players can’t carry a team on their own, but I think if you ask around, most Warriors fans feel a lot better at some of the peripheral players on this roster now, as compared to the start of the season.

Clippers vs. Warriors Q&A With Let’s Go Warriors
Robert Flom