OAKLAND–After romping to a 16-point beat down of the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday at Staples Center, the Warriors elected to spot their foes from down south 45 points on Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.
With point guard Steph Curry sidelined due to a sprained ankle he suffered during shootaround on Wednesday morning, Golden State tried to ride Kevin Durant on a night the 29-year-old made NBA history to a sixth straight victory. Instead, Clippers’ guard Lou Williams torched the Warriors for a career-high 50 points and led Los Angeles to a 125-106 win that snapped a stretch of 12 consecutive Golden State victories in the series.
The loss marked Golden State’s sixth home loss of 2017, and Williams’ 50 points were the most by an opposing player against the Warriors since Damian Lillard scored 51 on February 19, 2016.
Due to Curry’s absence and a scheduled rest for his Splash Brother Klay Thompson, Durant was forced to shoulder the Warriors’ scoring load after missing the past three games due to a calf strain. The Warriors’ 7-foot forward entered the night 25 points shy of the 20,000 career point threshold, and promptly drilled 9-of-10 field goal attempts in the first half for a clean 25 points.
Durant became the second-youngest player behind LeBron James to reach 20,000 points, needing just 29 years and 103 days to hit the milestone. While James was more than a year younger than Durant when he hit the mark, it took Durant just 11 games more (737) than it took James (726) to reach 20,000 points in part because Durant spent a year at Texas while James jumped straight to the NBA out of high school. According to Oliver Maroney of DimeUPROXX, Wilt Chamberlain scored his 20,000th career point in his 499th career game.
When Durant drilled a spot-up three-pointer late in the first half to reach the milestone, the Oracle Arena crowd rose to its feet, but play continued. After a foul on the defensive end of the floor sent the Clippers to the line, Oracle Arena acknowledged Durant’s feat, as he joined an elite club only 43 other players in league history hold a membership with.
Here's the massive standing ovation Kevin Durant received after reaching 20K pic.twitter.com/moxKY4teEM
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 11, 2018
While Durant was a one-man show in the first half, the 62-58 advantage the Warriors carried into the break wasn’t a big enough cushion against a ragtag Clippers squad that overcame the absence of forward Blake Griffin. Led by a crew of former NBA castaways, Los Angeles pummeled Golden State in the third quarter, winning the frame 39-28 behind Williams’ ridiculous outburst. While Durant managed just seven third quarter points, Williams was unstoppable in his effort to will the Clippers to victory.
Wednesday’s contest marked just the third time since they became teammates that Curry and Thompson missed a game together, and the Warriors fell to 0-3 in such games. With Durant serving as the team’s only presence from beyond the arc, the rest of Golden State’s offense combined to shoot 2-for-16 from three-point range.
Though Golden State has figured out ways to win without Curry, Durant and Draymond Green, who have all missed several games due to injury this season, the combined loss of Curry and Thompson –who missed his first game of the year on Wednesday– was simply too much for the Warriors’ offense to overcome.
Head coach Steve Kerr was forced to use Green as a point forward for much of the night, while all four of Golden State’s centers earned considerable run in the team’s rotation. The jumbled lineups led to a lack of fluidity that Los Angeles took advantage of, and forced the Warriors to start the second half of the year the same way they began the first half– with a loss.