Even when Stephen Curry isn't at his best, the Golden State Warriors keep finding ways to win. Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Shaun Livingston each topped 20-plus points Sunday as the team beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-98, at Oracle Arena.
2015 NBA scores: Warriors roll Clippers, Tim Duncan makes unfortunate history
Another way for the Warriors to win, Tim Duncan’s unfortunate feat and the rest of the action from Sunday in the NBA.
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
It's not often that Curry, a frontrunner for league MVP, has an off night. One of those rare quiet performances came Sunday against Chris Paul and the Clippers, who held the superstar point guard to 12 points on 3-of-9 shooting. That's his lowest scoring output since Jan. 23 against the Sacramento Kings, and only the sixth time this season he's failed to score 15-plus points.
Most teams would struggle when their best player isn’t getting his usual numbers, but the Warriors continue to prove they’re not like other teams. Combining some strong defense with an effective transition game and a couple unexpected scoring performances, the team rolled to another victory despite Curry’s relative inactivity.
Turning defense into offense has become a big part of the Warriors’ game over the past couple years, and that was on full display Sunday. The Clippers are tied for the lowest turnover rate in the league, committing just 12 per game, but gave away possession 18 times against Golden State.
That allowed the Warriors to regularly get onto the fastbreak, where the team held a 29-17 advantage with the likes of Green, Thompson and Livingston leading the way.
It’s not often you’ll see a point guard other than Curry putting up the big scoring numbers for Golden State, but Livingston delivered a season-high 21 points off the bench. Combined with Green -- who scored a team-high 23 -- and Thompson -- who matched his season average with 21 -- the Warriors got more than enough scoring punch even without their MVP candidate.
The big game from Livingston was most unexpected. Green and Thompson have been established as rising stars on one of the best teams, but the Warriors' backup point guard seldom steps into the limelight. However, the Clippers, who usually use the undersized Nate Robinson and Austin Rivers behind CP3, had no answers for the 6'7 Livingston.
Not only did the 29-year-old rack up his biggest scoring effort in nearly a year, but he did it while playing a complete game. Livingston shot 9-of-14 from the field to efficiently get his points, and racked up eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in 28 minutes. To top it off, he did all that without committing a single turnover.
It’s the kind of high-level performance a team needs out of its backups every once in a while, and for Golden State it came at the perfect time. With Curry kept quiet while going toe-to-toe with Paul, Livingston took one of his rare opportunities to be a difference-maker and delivered. Keep one point guard in check, the other one will get you with a completely different style.
That’s a unique one-two punch that folks don’t talk about too much given the Warriors’ wealth of talent, but it could come up big down the stretch. Few teams boast two solid point guards with such different characteristics, and the way the team can attack you with different looks using Curry and Livingston makes it that much more dangerous.
So even on a night like Sunday, when the Clippers did everything right to limit Curry’s ability to go wild, that left the door open for Livingston to do his thing. And with the chances in transition against a much smaller backcourt, he showed he’s another variable opponents need to plan for.
3 other things we learned
Tim Duncan can play an NBA game without making a basket. After nearly two decades and over 1,300 games, the San Antonio Spurs' legendary big man went without a field goal for the first time on Sunday. The lack of production didn't mean much in a 116-105 victory over the Chicago Bulls, but it was still notable to see the future Hall of Famer kept quiet from the field for a full contest. Duncan wasn't held scoreless, mind you -- he finished with three points thanks to some free throws -- but his 0-of-8 effort from the field represents history. Duncan has been one of the steadiest performers in league history since making his debut in 1997, and even in his late 30s, his consistency has been remarkable.
Russell Westbrook's stat stuffing is endless. End one ridiculous triple-double streak, start a new one? That seems to be the case for OKC's star point guard, who wrecked the Toronto Raptors for 30 points, 17 assists and 11 rebounds in a 108-104 win on Sunday night. With Kevin Durant out of the lineup, Westbrook's numbers have been hard to comprehend, and after having his triple-double run snapped in a loss to the Bulls last week, he's right back on the wagon with this monster effort. Westbrook's performance since KD went down has earned a lot of attention, and it's not hard to see why. Over these past eight games, he's put up one of the craziest stretches we've seen in recent memory: 34.3 points, 11.6 assists and 10.9 rebounds per game.
Post-trade deadline Utah Jazz aren't bad. Things are looking up in Utah over the past couple weeks, thanks largely to the breakout of big man Rudy Gobert. With Enes Kanter no longer mucking up the team's depth chart with his questionable defensive skills, the Jazz have been the best defensive team in the NBA since the trade deadline, per NBA.com. Gobert anchoring the middle while surrounded by athletic defenders like Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward and Alec Burks has proven to be an exciting formula for first-year coach Quin Snyder. At the very least, coming off a 95-88 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, it's getting harder to dismiss the team's defensive improvement without Kanter, who was a notoriously bad rim protector. Gobert, on the other hand, is quickly making a name for himself as one of the league's best.
| Team | Def. Rating since Feb. 20 |
| Utah Jazz | 89.7 |
| Indiana Pacers | 91.9 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 95.3 |
| Atlanta Hawks | 96.1 |
| Los Angeles Clippers | 96.1 |
Play of the Night
Usually it’s a win for the defense when the ballhandler turns around and starts dribbling away from the basket while surrounded by several players. That’s because pretty much nobody would even try, let alone score on, this kind of play. Stephen Curry cares not for words like “impossible,” even when he’s not the Warriors’ hot hand.
4 fun things
You can get assists by intentionally passing the ball, or you can just flail at it and get lucky like Brook Lopez.
We can make fun of this Glen Davis flop all we want, but hey, the move did work.
Michael Jordan apparently used to call himself “Black Jesus” while trash talking on the court. Dude was confident.
Tim Duncan might've showed his age against the Bulls, but Tony Parker had a vintage night of impressive scoring.
Final scores
Golden State Warriors 106, Los Angeles Clippers 98 (Golden State of Mind recap | Clips Nation recap)
San Antonio Spurs 116, Chicago Bulls 105 (Pounding The Rock recap | Blog A Bull recap)
Utah Jazz 95, Brooklyn Nets 88 (SLC Dunk recap | Nets Daily recap)
Oklahoma City Thunder 108, Toronto Raptors 104 (Welcome To Loud City recap | Raptors HQ recap)
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