INGLEWOOD — The Los Angeles Clippers survived a 7-0 late-game spurt to beat the visiting Golden State Warriors, 102-99, on Tuesday night (Wednesday AM Manila time) at the Intuit Dome.
Norman Powell took charge of the Clippers offense with 23 points, off-setting a poor shooting night from All-Star James Harden who settled with 12 points on 2-of-6 shooting from 3 and 4-of-15 from the field overall.
Ivica Zubac, who has been playing well throughout this young season, punished the Warriors off the boards with 17 rebounds to go with his 8 points. Amir Coffey and Terance Mann combined for 25 points off the bench.
The Clippers improved to 8-7 for the season, but it wasn’t easy. They shot just 42.7 percent from the field and had to dodge a mighty 26 points from Steph Curry who soldiered through a left knee bursities to drill six 3-pointers.
Andrew Wiggins added 22 points for Golden State, which dropped to 11-3 but still leads the Western Conference in a surprising start to a season where they began life without Klay Thompson, the other half of the legendary Splash Brothers.
The Warriors had a solid haul of 45 rebounds and 27 assists but they were held back by 16 turnovers, which is unusually high for a team loaded with veterans, albeit without the injured Kawhi Leonard.
Golden State also bungled 10 missed free throws, which proved to be critical in what turned out to be a close ending.
