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Curry-less Warriors demolished by Clippers, as virus concerns displayed in crowd turnout

By

Jacob Hutchinson

/

© John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn’t empty, per se. But it was noticeably far from capacity at Chase Center on Tuesday night when the Warriors, without Stephen Curry — dealing with influenza A, or what you might call the “normal flu” — played in what was, for all intents and purposes, as meaningless a game as it gets.

Still, a game had to be played, and it might well be one of the last with any sort of crowd — a very rough estimate might say a 60 percent capacity crowd, much lower than normal, even for this season’s version of the Warriors — at Chase this season. And the result of that game was a Los Angeles Clippers obliteration of the Warriors by a final score of 131-107.

In Japan, the national baseball league (the Nippon Professional Baseball league) has delayed the start of its season. In Europe, soccer games are being played in empty stadiums. And in Santa Clara County, a legal order has prohibited gatherings of 1,000-plus people, meaning the San Jose Sharks and Earthquakes are about to play in empty homes.

Reporters in the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS have all been prohibited from entering team locker rooms and interviews have begun to be conducted from at least 6-8 feet out. ESPN’s Jeff Passan has reported that some teams are evaluating the possibility of playing outside of their traditional metropolitan areas, with The Athletic’s Evan Drelish reporting that the Seattle Mariners are exploring the possibility of playing their home games in Arizona.

This is all to say, it’s a matter of time before the same happens in the NBA and other professional American sports leagues. Though, it is a battle of pragmatism versus profit, so even though there is that obvious option of shutting out crowds for the time being, it will almost certainly require governmental interaction. Especially, when, as The Mercury News’ Dieter Kurtenbach reported, the Warriors are making on average, upwards of $5 million per game.

Head coach Steve Kerr said before the game that the changes to media and general day-to-day interactions have been sort of surreal and “awkward” in not knowing the right way to greet people.

That said, according to The New York Times’ Marc Stein, the NBA has a conference call with team owners on Wednesday, followed by a call on Thursday with team GMs.

But hey, for now, the hand spread t-shirt tosses and parachutes go on, optics be damned.

If you’ve read this far in search of information related to this cosmic zero of a basketball contest here’s a summary:

  • Stephen Curry (flu), Draymond Green (knee), Alen Smailagic (quad) did not play
  • Juan Toscano-Anderson sprained his left ankle in the first minute of the game and did not return
  • Marquese Chriss knocked knees with another player, but later returned
  • The Warriors trailed 36-26 at the end of the first quarter, 76-48 by the end of the first half, and 111-77 at the end of the third quarter. It was never close.
  • Golden State wasn’t abysmal from the field, shooting 46.8 percent (37-of-79), but they were a terrible 28.9 percent from three (11-of-38), and blown out of the water by a Clippers team that was astoundingly efficient (going 46-of-92 from the field, 20-of-44 from 3-pt and 19-of-19 from FT) for the very rare 50/45/100 split.
  • Kawhi Leonard led the game with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting, which may be a surprise given the chasm in points between the two teams. That’s because the Clippers had seven players in double-digits, and Marcus Morris Sr. (9 points), one short.
  • Tied with Leonard for those 23 points? Dragan Bender (8-of-12, 2-of-5 from 3-pt, 5-of-5 from FT) who is on his second and final two-way deal. Sixteen of those points came in the second half and seven were in the final quarter.
  • The Warriors, at 15-50, are now the first NBA team to 50 losses.
  • What should you take from this game? Three things:
    • Dragan Bender could maybe, possibly stick around
    • This Andrew Wiggins dunk was nice (so was a garbage time one from Jordan Poole, but there doesn’t appear to be a video of that one floating around on Twitter)

    • Nothing. Take nothing from this meaning-devoid, eye-bleach-worthy experience. For those who watched this entire game, I suggest leaving the house, taking a lengthy walk, and avoiding every television broadcasting anything Warriors-related until Stephen Curry returns.
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