Lou Williams, Clippers upset Warriors in overtime – Orange County Register

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LOS ANGELES — Clippers big man Montrezl Harrell didn’t view Monday’s matchup with the world-beating Golden State Warriors as any sort of David vs. Goliath allegory.

No way, he insisted, this was just a basketball game between two NBA teams. Two good NBA teams. Two teams capable of putting on a fantastic show.

“Tonight’s another basketball game,” Harrell said before the Clippers upset the Warriors 121-116 in overtime Monday before 19,068 fans at Staples Center. “At the end of the day, they’re another basketball team just like us. They gotta defend and do everything just like we have to. They have to come in and play us, the same way we have to play them.”

And they had to play Lou Williams.

For the second consecutive overtime game, reliable reserve Lou Williams (25 points, six assists) delivered the exclamation points he’s known for, scoring his team’s last 10 points, including sinking all three free throws he was awarded after he was fouled on a shot from deep with 13.4 seconds left.

Against the surging Bucks on Saturday, his floater with 0.3 seconds left gave the Clippers (now 8-5) the victory.

In both contests, Williams hadn’t been hot – until he was. Entering overtime, he’d made only three of his 16 attempts from the floor, including missing a 20-footer with 5.6 seconds left in regulation, when the score was frozen at 106-106.

Klay Thompson’s 3-pointer with 1:27 left had tied it at 106, erasing the Clippers’ game-long lead and capping a 19-5 run to end regulation – to the delight of a large and vocal contingent of Warriors fans in the building.

After Andre Iguodala’s 3-pointer gave the Warriors (11-3) a 109-106 lead to start overtime, Williams made sure the home team’s fans had reason to celebrate, steering the Clippers to another statement victory against one of the NBA’s elite teams.

In overtime, Williams sank a 15-footer, three free throws, converted a driving layup and, finally, buried those final three foul shots.

“Lou is like all the great scorers,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “Every miss, they think they’re getting closer to getting hot. Those guys are just different. They can miss all game and they literally think, ‘You’re in trouble now.’ That’s their mindset.”

That’s a fact, Williams confirmed.

“I don’t really care (if shots aren’t falling), I guess that’s what it is,” Williams said. “I know my teammates have confidence in me and I have confidence in myself. When you’re a shooter, you’re gonna have bad nights, you’ll have good nights. Sometimes you have good with the bad, and tonight was one of those nights. We wanted to win the game, so there wasn’t a point for me to be out on the floor if I still didn’t play with confidence.”

Harrell had a lot to do with the victory, as well. Wearing his “monitor” shoes that were equipped, he said previously, to play his highlights on the tongue, Harrell helped push his side past the other team, which happened to be two-time defending NBA champions. He finished with 23 points and eight rebounds.

His pair of dunks and a made free throw in a late-third quarter spurt gave the Clippers their largest lead until then – nine points – entering the fourth quarter, which started with the Warriors’ Kevin Durant saddled with five fouls.

Without two-time league MVP Steph Curry in the lineup (the super-shooting guard was sidelined with a groin injury), Durant led the way for the Warriors with 33 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists before fouling out with 3:46 left in overtime. Thompson had 31 points.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Clippers’ prince of poise, seemed to share Harrell’s perspective. The slippery 20-year-old rookie seemed unaffected by his first meeting with the Warriors, winners of three of the past four NBA crowns. He proved a tough cover, drawing fouls and delivering 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Marcin Gortat also got in on the fun for L.A. after he’d been excluded from the action for three consecutive games before getting the nod again Saturday. In his second consecutive start Monday, he was one of six Clippers in double figures, with 12 points.

Tobias Harris had 17 points and Danilo Gallinari had 14.

The Clippers led 64-61 at halftime.

Four Clippers had scored in double figures by the intermission. That included Gortat, who was perfect from the field (3 for 3) and the free-throw line (4 for 4) in the first 24 minutes.

Durant finished the half with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field, but the Clippers also pinned three fouls on the superstar before the half was over.

The Clippers got a scare in the second quarter when Harris banged knees with a defender, falling to the floor clutching his right leg in pain. But after a few moments on the bench during a timeout, he was back in the game, and immediately back in the flow – sinking a 3-pointer, finding Gortat for a layup and then working his way inside to convert a left-handed lay-in of his own.

He said afterward that his knee was bruised, but that he thought he would be OK.



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