Golden State has won three straight, but Sunday’s meeting with the Clippers asks a different question: how much of that momentum carries over without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green? Both are out against Los Angeles, putting more of the scoring burden on the players who helped fuel the turnaround. The Clippers arrive on a four-game losing streak, so this is also a chance to steady an offense that has struggled to keep them competitive.
A winning streak meets a personnel change
Curry scored 31 points in Friday’s 112-95 comeback win over the Lakers. Golden State recovered from an early 25-point deficit, with Brandin Podziemski adding 21 points, six assists and five rebounds. De’Anthony Melton contributed another 16 points off the bench. Those contributions give the Warriors something useful to carry into Sunday beyond Curry’s big night.
Curry will sit out for rest, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints.com. Green is also out with a back issue, while Gui Santos is probable with a knee issue in the latest injury updates. That puts Podziemski’s performance in sharper focus: Golden State needs offense without Friday’s leading scorer, and his six assists show how he helped create it alongside his own scoring.
The DraftKings spread makes Golden State a 2.5-point favorite. Its recent results help explain why this isn’t simply a matchup between two struggling teams: the Warriors have covered four straight spreads, including the loss at Phoenix that preceded their three wins. But Sunday’s absences make it harder to carry that run forward unchanged. The remaining contributors will have to sustain that improvement with less help.
The Clippers need more than Garland’s scoring
Los Angeles lost 127-101 at Minnesota on Friday despite 24 points from Darius Garland. He shot 10-for-22 and committed five turnovers, while Rui Hachimura scored 12 in his return from a one-game absence. Minnesota pulled away with a 20-2 fourth-quarter run.
The Clippers scored 87 against the Lakers in the game before that. Those two results make their own offensive response central to this matchup, even with Golden State missing two prominent players. Garland supplied points Friday; Los Angeles still couldn’t stay close. Avoiding another extended scoring drought is a more useful measure of progress than relying on the Warriors’ absences alone.
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Our turnover projections put the Clippers at about 16 turnovers and the Warriors at about 15. That leaves ball security as a concern on both sides, rather than an obvious Los Angeles advantage. Golden State committed 17 turnovers against the Lakers, including 10 in the first quarter. Repeating that kind of opening would make the job harder with Curry unavailable.
What matters at a 221.5 total
The posted total brings the offensive uncertainty into focus. Curry’s absence removes Friday’s leading scorer, while the Clippers’ last two scoring performances give little reassurance about their ability to drive a high-scoring game. There is a counterweight: Podziemski and Melton produced meaningful offense against the Lakers, and Los Angeles just allowed 127 to Minnesota. A struggling Clippers attack doesn’t automatically mean a quiet game overall.
Podziemski and Melton give Golden State a useful starting point, but Friday’s comeback also required 31 points from Curry. Cutting down the early turnovers would ease the burden on the remaining scorers. For Los Angeles, the opportunity created by those absences only matters if it can build a steadier attack around Garland. Ball security and scoring support are the clearest tests of whether either team can improve on the weaknesses Friday exposed.
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