After being quite self-critical about his first game despite the win, Stephen Curry redeemed himself in the Warriors’ second game this season. With the Chase Center as the stage and with the Clippers as a rival, the point guard lived one of those nights of scoring explosion to which he has already accustomed us throughout his career and led his team to their second win, this time by 115 -113. Golden State therefore begins the course in a more than exciting way, since it has taken two games against renowned rivals despite the absences.
And it is that the 45 points of Curry made forget any possible conditioner. If in the game at Staples he sinned from a strange shooting mistake, this time Steph made up for his mistakes with a real recital, scoring 8 3-pointers on 13 shots and once again being the continuous threat to the rival defense that he has been for years. His start to the game seemed in fact an attempt to mark territory, since he went to 25 points in an absolutely overwhelming first quarter and in which the Clippers could not do more than resign themselves to seeing all the shots he tried come in.
The Angelenos, however, reacted perfectly, and thanks to an extraordinary closing of the second quarter and their good defense, led by Mann, they managed to turn the game around in just a few minutes, going from being 19 points down to going ahead. at halftime (from 61-42 to 66-67). The Warriors, entrusted to Curry at the start, were slow to react when he had more trouble showing up, sending them through stretches of traffic jam and letting a wide lead slip away in no time.
However, the point guard was activated again when his team needed it most, and managed to add 10 goals in the last 4 minutes that were essential to close the clash, which had entered a phase of exchange of blows and continuous relays on the scoreboard. . With two very distant triples, the last of them with 57 seconds remaining, Stephen returned the lead to Golden State in two fundamental moments, and with two free throws he was in charge of closing a duel in which he was clearly the differential factor.
After Curry, the second leading scorer for Kerr’s side was Andrew Wiggins, who had 17 points and was effective on the outside shot with 3/6 on 3-pointers. Damion Lee and Draymond Green, meanwhile, finished with 11 and 10 points, and both hit several key baskets in the fourth quarter that gave their score more weight than the numbers seem to concede. The power forward also finished with 7 assists and 6 rebounds, although his disaster weighed on him from the free throw (2/9).
On the Los Angeles side, Paul George started the course at a high level, acting as the leader and signing 29 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists, although the truth is that it faded as the minutes passed. With 16 points in the second quarter, the forward was in charge of lifting his team off the canvas when they were at their worst, but was not able to help much when the crash reached its final bars. This weighed down on those of Lue, who depended on the specific contributions of some rather irregular secondary ones.
Eric Bledsoe, with 22 points, was by far the one who responded best, as men like Marcus Morris or Reggie Jackson were rather discreet at the scorer level, especially the latter, who stayed at a very poor 4/19 shooting and was very far from the version offered in the last playoffs. Ivica Zubac, with 14 points, finished third in this facet despite having only 17 minutes on the track, and showed that the Clippers will need others to take a step forward to continue being a team to be reckoned with.
(Cover photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)