Matchup |
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Golden State Warriors
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L.A. Clippers
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Details |
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October 20, 2015 |
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Staples Center — Los Angeles, CA |
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7:30 pm PST |
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National TV: ESPN | Online: WatchESPN.com | Radio: KNBR 680 AM |
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Blog Buddy: Clips Nation |
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Projected Starters |
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Stephen Curry |
G |
Chris Paul |
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Klay Thompson |
G |
J.J. Redick |
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Brandon Rush |
F |
Wesley Johnson |
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Draymond Green |
F |
Blake Griffin |
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Festus Ezeli |
C |
DeAndre Jordan |
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Key Injuries |
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Harrison Barnes – Bone bruise (knee) Andrew Bogut – Broken nose Kevon Looney - Out |
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I don't know about the rest of you, but I really wanted the Golden State Warriors to face the L.A. Clippers in the Western Conference Finals last season.
The ever-intensifying rivalry between the two was bound to make for an entertaining series and it would actually settle the matter of bragging rights for the year — I wanted the Warriors to prove themselves against the best, I felt the Clippers were a more difficult matchup than the Rockets, and I didn't want anyone questioning the Warriors' path to the title.
Then the Clippers completely blew it against the Rockets and we ended up exactly where I didn't want to be: people writing off the Warriors as lucky all offseason, even though the very fact of making it through the gauntlet of the Western Conference made for a path to the 2015 NBA Finals that was more difficult than average.
Beyond other people around the basketball world, from fans to media, calling the Warriors lucky, Doc Rivers himself is the most recent person to add to the Warriors' list of motivational words for the season. If you've been keeping up with Warriors news you're probably aware of that situation already, but Ben Bolch of the L.A. Times summarized it well yesterday if you have (justifiably) ignored the preseason drama of the NBA.
I'm really surprised how sensitive they are about it," said Rivers, whose comments were originally misrepresented by reporters relaying them to Thompson. "They are the champions, so they should just be the champions."
Rivers recently told Grantland that there was luck involved in Golden State's winning the championship because the Warriors didn't have to play the Clippers or the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs. But reporters told Thompson that Rivers had called the Warriors "lucky."
"Ha ha, that sounds really bitter to me," Thompson said...
When you dig into what was actually said, this is in fact another one of Glenn's Cool Stories, as we've already discussed here at Golden State of Mind.
But in fairness, Rivers seems to have a good sense of humor about the whole thing — Bolch reports that Rivers actually asked Draymond Green why he didn't sell those "Cool story, Glenn" t-shirts so they could split the profits — but insofar as it feeds into the ongoing disrespect of the Warriors' title, it's still sounds "really bitter" to me.
Tonight they actually play a game, on ESPN no less, and I'm sure everything will be smoothed out between Rivers and the Warriors...that is, until the day when the Clippers do something else to demonstrate what an annoyance they are. For now, I'm with Klay Thompson, as reported by Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group: "I'm sick of talking about that dude. Sorry, man."