Why the Warriors’ Zubac assignment is a matchup to watch against the Clippers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
When the Warriors lost their home opener to the Los Angeles Clippers last month, they weren’t undone by 10-time All-Star James Harden or six-time All-Star Kawhi Leonard. They were struck by someone who may never reach All-Star status.
Ivica Zubac, the biggest man on the LA roster, owned the Warriors and they didn’t forget. He was pushed closer to the top of Golden State’s scouting report when the teams meet on Monday night at Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
The 7-foot, 240-pound center scored 23 points, tying Harden for a team high, and pulled down 18 rebounds. After Zubac scored five of LA’s first seven points in the second quarter, Golden State never led again.
“Every time they needed a bucket,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the Oct. 27 game at Chase Center, “they seemed to get one from him.”
The Warriors would typically come after Zubac with their trio of big men: Trayce Jackson-Davis, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney. Looney was the best in the previous game, with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 20 minutes, but was ruled out Monday afternoon with an illness.
That leaves TJD, who struggled last time out, and Green, who hasn’t seen much of Zubac but knows his game. The task is now more difficult, as Zubac has become a force, ranking among the top five scoring centers (15.9 ppg) and fifth among all players in rebounding (12.1 points per game).
Kerr will undoubtedly remind his team not to reach while defending Harden and wary of Norman Powell, a notorious streak shooter who has punished the Warriors in the past.
But Zubac, that night, was the mountain they could not climb. He played 37 minutes and was the central reason the Warriors were outscored 58-38 in the paint; that stat is relevant because that’s 10 more than LA’s per-game average and 10 less than Golden State’s.
No less impressive is that Zubac managed such production after playing 39 minutes the night before in high-altitude Denver.
“When we get him the ball in the paint, when we get to his sweet spot, he’s usually money,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Oct. 27. “I hate to see him play so many minutes back and forth, but we needed every second of it.”
That didn’t help the Warriors last time, but this is a second chance under similar conditions. After beating Utah on Sunday in LA, the Clippers are back in the second night of a back-to-back set.
