Steph Curry made history for the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, passing Ray Allen to set the NBA’s new all-time playoff three-point record. The Warriors made even more NBA history in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on Monday – but not the kind of history Dubs fans like to see: They were on the wrong end of the biggest comeback in playoff history, allowing the L.A. Clippers to storm back from 31 points down and win 135-131. Before Monday’s blowup, the worst collapse in the NBA playoffs happened back in 1989 when the Lakers came back from a 29-point deficit against the Seattle Supersonics.<doc-sep>Click here if you’re unable to view the gallery on your mobile device. OAKLAND — The Warriors lost a four-time All-Star and one of the game’s most dominant centers. But even if they have concerns about DeMarcus Cousins’ left quad injury, the Warriors have much more pressing concerns. The Warriors suffered a 135-131 Game 2 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers of their first-round series on Monday at Oracle Arena after squandering a 31-point lead. “We let our guard down. We weren’t the aggressors any more,” Klay Thompson said. “We didn’t deserve to win that game. Basketball gods didn’t reward us.” No, they did not. The Warriors still had a chance to salvage this game in the final minutes instead of allowing the Clippers to tie the series at 1-1 and steal home-court advantage entering Game 3 on Thursday in Los Angeles. Instead, the Warriors unraveled in the same dramatic fashion to allow the Clippers to cement the biggest comeback in NBA playoff history. In a game that he wilted after collecting four fouls early in the third quarter, Stephen Curry missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds remaining. In a game that he had a plus-minus of -15, Klay Thompson also missed a go-ahead 3 with 33.2 seconds left. And in a game the Warriors had no solution for, Lou Williams made a game-tying fadeaway and a go-ahead 3. Suddenly, the Warriors have some serious cracks in their championship armor. “It is tough,” Curry said. “It’s going to sting a little bit, just understanding how precious every game is in the playoff series.” Klay Thompson subscribes. You can too for just 11 cents a day for 11 months + receive a free Warriors Championship book. Sign me up! It did not appear the Warriors needed to understand that. Unlike most teams, the Warriors were initially unaffected with Cousins leaving the game with 8:09 left in the first quarter. Instead, they just relied on their four other All-Stars in Curry (29 points), Kevin Durant (21), Klay Thompson (17) and Draymond Green (14 points, nine assists). And why not? The Warriors have won two consecutive NBA titles with that group. The Warriors seemed more than capable of absorbing Cousins’ absence with Kevon Looney having a career-high 19 points on 6-of-6 shooting with five rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. Hence, the Warriors were running the Clippers off the floor. A funny thing happened, though. The Clippers stayed on the floor. And the Warriors? As Kerr said, “we stopped playing.” The Warriors committed 22 turnovers after vowing they would rectify the 21 turnovers they had in Game 1. The Warriors collected 31 fouls. And the Clippers’ bench in Lou Williams (36), Harrell (25) and JaMychal Green (13) proved devastating again. Add it all up, and the Clippers outperformed the Warriors in the third quarter (44-35) and the fourth quarter (41-23) by embarrassingly large margins. “When I say we stopped playing, we stopped playing defense, offense, executions-wise,” Kerr said. “We were not as engaged as we needed to be. We got exactly what we deserved.” No longer did the Warriors look like the defending NBA champions. Durant began the day apologizing publicly about getting ejected at the end of Game 1 amid playful and trash-talking exchanges with Clippers guard Patrick Beverley. While Durant kept his vow to keep his cool during amid Beverley’s swarming defense, he did not exactly follow through on clapping back with production. He committed more turnovers (nine) than shot attempts. He fouled out with 1:22 to at a time his crunch-time presence could have helped the Warriors salvage a win. Durant did not talk to reporters, leaving Kerr to speak tersely for him. “He had a tough night,” said Kerr without elaborating. So did Thompson, whom the Warriors pledged to help receive better looks after shooting only 5-of-14 in Game 1. Instead, Thompson finished with a -23 plus-minus rating in the second half. He also missed what he called “a wide-open look at the top of the key” as the Warriors held a 131-130 lead with 33.3 seconds left. Clippers guard Landry Shamet then made the go-ahead game-winning 3 with 16.5 seconds left. Want Warriors news delivered to your phone? Sign up for a free trial of Mark Medina’s Warriors text messaging service * * * Usually in these instances, Curry can answer with his own 3. No problem. This time, Curry missed a 27-footer with 9.3 seconds left. Curry had just become the NBA’s all-time leading 3-point shooter following the Warriors’ Game 1 win over the Clippers. But in Game 2, Curry suddenly could not hit a shot after collecting his fourth foul with 8:41 left in the third quarter. Kerr will be the first to admit he had “a little messed-up rotation” afterwards. During Curry’s absence, the Clippers trimmed a 25-point lead to a 17-point cushion. He then entered the lineup with Durant in the final 13.5 seconds, only to commit a turnover on the final play. He then had only seven points on 2-of-9 shooting in the fourth quarter. “It doesn’t help, but I got to overcome that,” Curry said. “It’s not the first time I’ve been in foul trouble and had to come back. Rhythm, timing, whatever, you got to make plays.” Green was not as forgiving. He cemented himself as the team’s most important player by excelling in his usual role as a playmaker and defender. So when Kerr yanked Green for the final 13.5 seconds left in favor of Curry, Green stared at Kerr in frustration on the bench. Green also did not speak to reporters afterwards. Hence, the Warriors’ locker room seemed more subdued than normal. “The mood’s [crap], and that’s actually a positive sign, in my opinion,” Warriors center Andrew Bogut said. “It wasn’t something where we were like, ‘Oh we’ll get them next time’. We’re genuinely pissed off about it. We have a lot of work to do these next couple of days to get ready for them over there.” Where to begin? It might hard to limit the turnovers and fouls. Perhaps the Warriors finds way at least to prevent Williams from running a layup line. Maybe they just need to maintain the same effort level that created a 31-point lead. “The locker room was down as it should be because every game matters to us,” Curry said. “We felt worse in the locker room before in terms of all the different playoff experiences we’ve had.” After all, the Warriors famously squandered a 3-1 series lead to Cleveland in the 2016 NBA Finals. But they overcame other obstacles. They climbed back from a 2-1 series deficit in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals against Memphis. They overcame a 3-2 series deficit in last year’s Western Conference Finals against Houston. So on paper, the Warriors are not exactly threatened with the Clippers. Unlike when the Warriors upset Dallas 12 years ago as an eighth seed, the current Warriors do not believe the Clippers can do the same thing to them. Still, the Warriors admittedly felt different after this one. That is what happens after losing an All-Star center and conceding the biggest comeback in NBA postseason history. All of which leaves the Warriors hopeful their anger can be a good thing. “If channeled right, it might be. I think it will, We have a lot of experience,” Thompson said. “I know we’ll bounce back. We’re too prideful not to.” If only the Warriors had enough pride to hold onto a 31-point lead in Game 2. WARRIORS HQ PODCAST: Be sure to visit our podcast page at mercurynews.com. You can also get notified of new episodes on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud. * * * Follow Bay Area News Group Warriors beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>
After the Clippers come back from a 31-point deficit to beat the Warriors in Game 2, Doc Rivers tells the media they have bigger goals in sight. (1:35) OAKLAND, Calif. -- At halftime Monday, with his team trailing the Golden State Warriors by 23 points on the road, LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers tried to instill confidence in his players. What did he say? "That we were going to win," Rivers said. "Just hang in there. Just hang in there long enough. I was honest with them. I said, 'I don't know how.' I said, 'We're going to figure this out, but just hang in there with each other.'" His team would trail by as many as 31 points in Game 2 of its Western Conference first-round series against the Warriors at Oracle Arena, but, just as he said, the Clippers hung in there and came all the way back to win 135-131 in what became the biggest postseason comeback in NBA history. "We stopped playing," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We kind of disconnected kind of mid-third quarter, lost our defensive edge. They scored 85 points in the second half. We had really done a good job defensively in the first half. So we kind of messed with the game a little bit. When you do that, you're in some trouble, especially in the playoffs." The Clippers bested the Los Angeles Lakers' rally from a 29-point deficit to beat the Seattle Supersonics in 1989. The Clippers also came back from 27 points down in a playoff win over the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012. But it's not as if a comeback from such a steep deficit is new for these Clippers. Before this season, no team had more than one 25-point comeback win in a season since play-by-play data became available in 1996-97. But this season, the Clippers have posted three comebacks of 25 points or more, according to ESPN Stats & Information. "For me, we on national television, got family, friends, people that look up to you," said Clippers reserve guard Lou Williams, who scored a game-high 36 points. "We understand the type of team that we're playing against, so you don't want to be the group of guys being blasted on national television. Not only that, we've been a resilient team all year. We've come back from some deficits like that before. We live with our hard work." play 1:00 Kerr on Warriors' loss: 'We stopped playing' Warriors coach Steve Kerr admits that halfway through the third quarter they fell apart and says that DeMarcus Cousins' injury is "significant." The 85 points that the Clippers scored in the second half are the second most in the second half of a playoff game in NBA history behind the Milwaukee Bucks' 87 points in Game 3 of the 1978 Western Conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Before Game 2 against the Clippers on Monday, Kerr talked about the possibility of a letdown with his team already ahead one game in the first-round series. "You warn them," Kerr said of his players. "You warn them and you hope for the best." But what unfolded next at Oracle Arena will go down as a letdown that the Warriors won't soon forget -- nor will anyone else. "We let our guard down," Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. "We weren't the aggressors any more. We didn't deserve to win that game. Basketball gods didn't reward us. I had a wide-open look at the top of the key, in and out. It happens. We'll bounce back. I'll bounce back. The whole team will. We'll right the ship." Warriors star Kevin Durant had nine turnovers, his most in a game since joining the Warriors, and scored 21 points on only eight shots before fouling out. Stephen Curry had 29 points but was hindered by foul trouble. He also missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with nine seconds left. "This game is tough," Curry said. "It's hard to win playoff games no matter what the matchup is, no matter what the history is, the regular season, team versus team. It's tough. For six and a half quarters we played amazing. Had a 31-point lead. The wheels fell off. I know we can get it back. We obviously have shown that level of basketball is there for us. We got to put together 48 minutes of it, just a collective energy, positivity around everything we do.