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Warriors beat Clippers, escape elimination

Apr 13, 2008 - 6:53 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) - The Golden State Warriors know they must win their final three games if they're to have any hope of making the playoffs. Saturday was a good start.

Stephen Jackson scored 28 points and Baron Davis added 25 and nine assists as the Warriors kept their postseason hopes alive with a 122-116 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

With the win, Golden State (48-32) pulled back into a tie with the Denver Nuggets (48-32) for the eighth and final postseason spot in the Western Conference with two games remaining in the season.

"It's reality. It is what it is man," Jackson said. "Everybody on this team knows we have to win the rest of our games. Utah helped us, but we're still not in yet. They need to lose another one. We can't worry about them and hope that they lose.

"We've got to go out there and just play and if it happens it happens. If not, we did our best but we don't want to go these last two games with not giving our all. We don't want to have them lose to Houston and we end up losing, too. So, we can't worry about them we've got to take care of our own business."

The home crowd cheered loudly during a timeout in the second quarter when the scoreboard showed that Utah defeated Denver and began chanting "Let's Go Warriors!"

"The crowd wants to get to the playoffs, too," Jackson said. "If they could, they'll come down and play for us. When they screamed out that Utah beat Denver that gave everybody some energy and the whole building started shaking, so as a player when you have fans like that, you've got to respond to it."

The Nuggets, who will face the Houston Rockets on Sunday, own the tiebreaker.

"We all need to call our friends on the Rockets and tell them to go all out (Sunday)," said Warriors forward Al Harrington, who scored 17 points. "I think it's going to be a good game. We're going to try and watch it. We need the whole Bay Area to root Houston on. We're Houston fans for one night."

Cuttino Mobley's circus-like fadeaway jumper cut the Clippers' deficit to 93-88 with 10:59 remaining, and Corey Maggette made a pair from the line to make it a one-point game a minute later.

But the Warriors rebuilt their lead behind an 16-5 run that was capped by Davis' hook with 4:48 left to forge a 109-98 advantage.

However, Los Angeles did not fold and closed to five points with 1:46 left. But Monta Ellis and Jackson scored on consecutive possessions to restore order.

"Well, a bit of an ugly game, but we got a win I think that was important to stay in the hunt a little bit," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "But we're going to have to play an awful lot better in Phoenix (on Monday) if we want to win that game.

"But we found a way. It wasn't pretty, we just fouled way too much, especially in the fourth quarter."

Mobley collected 30 points and 10 boards and rookie Al Thornton added 25 and 11 boards for the Clippers, who lost their fifth straight outing.

"It ain't tough man, we ain't going to the playoffs we won 20 games," Mobley said. "I can see if we had all of our guys and all of us were healthy and we lost like that but it is what it is, it's life sometimes."