Let\u2019s get one thing straight, Dub Nation: we\u2019re not supposed to be here feeling good about ourselves when we\u2019re 19-17 and sitting third in the division. But perspective matters, and after watching the Clippers get absolutely dismantled 146-115 by the Boston Celtics on Saturday while the Warriors methodically handled the Jazz 123-114, I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n
The math is simple but meaningful. The Warriors are 8-12 on the road this season, which frankly isn\u2019t good enough for a team with championship aspirations. Meanwhile, the Clippers are 8-9 at home in their shiny new Intuit Dome, which means they\u2019re at least competent when they control the environment. This sets up one of those games that should be routine but carries trap game energy written all over it.<\/p>\n
Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers<\/p>\n
When: January 5th, 2026 | 7:00 PM PT<\/p>\n
TV: NBC Sports Bay Area, Peacock<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what makes Monday night fascinating: the Clippers have actually gone 6-4 in their last ten games despite sitting at 12-22 overall. That\u2019s not a team that\u2019s completely given up. That\u2019s a team that\u2019s found something resembling a functional rotation, probably out of sheer desperation and organizational chaos forcing everyone to just play basketball and stop overthinking things.<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry\u2019s been dealing with various injuries, but the Warriors need him to channel that vintage road warrior mentality. The Clippers\u2019 best chance is catching Golden State in one of those away games where the energy never quite materializes and suddenly you\u2019re in a dogfight with a team you should handle comfortably.<\/p>\n
The Warriors handled business against Utah. Now they need to prove that wasn\u2019t just a one-game bounce back but the start of actually figuring out how to win consistently. At 11-5 at Chase Center, this team knows how to dominate their home floor. Time to translate that to hostile territory.<\/p>\n
Can the Clippers, still 10.5 games back in the division, hang around and make this uncomfortable? Absolutely. Will they? That depends entirely on which version of Kawhi Leonard shows up, and whether James Harden remembers how much pain these Warriors have given him.<\/p>\n
For the Warriors, this is simple: handle business against a struggling opponent and keep climbing toward the Lakers and Suns. Anything less is a wasted opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s get one thing straight, Dub Nation: we\u2019re not supposed to be here feeling good about ourselves when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,64551,4025,4024,6,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-517828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors-discussion","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115841736575480912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}