Oct. 21--The Clippers cruised to an easy 130-95 victory over the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors in their preseason game Tuesday at Staples Center.
The Warriors, however, didn't play nine of their players, including the 2015 NBA MVP Stephen Curry.
Blake Griffin looked impressive, scoring 29 points on 11-for-18 shooting in 25 minutes. J.J. Redick added 15 points on five-for-seven shooting, including scoring nine points on perfect shooting in the first five minutes.
Chris Paul, who was voted the second-best point guard behind Curry in an anonymous survey by the league's general managers, finished with a game-high 10 assists. DeAndre Jordan had 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Lance Stephenson, who started Tuesday, finished with four points, three assists and two rebounds in 18 minutes.
The second unit was led by Austin Rivers, who is recovering from a blow by a wayward elbow he received from a teammate at a recent practice that knocked out a tooth and loosened three others. He had 16 points on six-for-11 shooting, including making a dunk and a three-pointer.
Josh Smith and Jamal Crawford each added 13 points.
The Clippers outshot the Warriors from the field, 54.9% to 41%, and from beyond the three-point line, 42.9% to 23.5%.
Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 21 points on six-for-12 shooting and had five assists. Thompson had recently taken issue to a comment that Clippers Coach Doc Rivers made when the coach claimed that luck was involved in the Golden State Warriors championship-winning run last season. Thompson called Rivers "bitter."
The Clippers' win ends a three-game preseason skid. They're now 2-3 in exhibition play. Their final preseason game is Thursday against the Portland Trail Blazers at 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center.
