Tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET the No. 7 seeded Golden State Warriors will escape the supercharged Staples Center for Game 6 of their Western Conference Round 1 best-of-seven series against the Los Angeles Clippers for a home game with their backs pressed against the wall. Watch the Clippers go for the elimination on TNT, or live stream it free here. Clippers fans can find the game on KFWB 980, while Warriors fans may do likewise on KNBR 680.
While the Donald Sterling fiasco may be receding from the forefront regarding Clippers storylines, head coach Doc Rivers said this issue won't be moot until a new owner is in place. Until then, he is going to expend a ton of energy ensuring his players are focused on the court.
"Like I told my guys, this is going to be with us," Rivers said. "Let's just keep winning and let's deal with it. But it's not going anywhere, and you just got to embrace that, that this is part of this year's playoffs for us.
"We don't have a manuscript or a rule book on how to deal with each issue that's going to come up. There will be more issues that we don't know about. Guys, we just got to try to keep our focus as much as we can. And if anybody is struggling with that, I told them to just let me know and we can find a way to deal with it individually."
There is also no clear blueprint for holding down Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, whose 20.8 points and 8.2 assists per game lead Golden State in Round 1. Curry's Game 4 showing, when he hung 28 points and knocked down 50 percent of his shots from the field, is something he may need to duplicate to grab a win.
Beyond Curry, Golden State's 3-point shooting remains the key to the series. In two wins the Warriors shot over 40 percent from the 3-point line, while they were 38 percent or worse in all three losses.
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