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Warriors bury Clippers, but lose Curry

Oct 30, 2010 - 6:08 AM OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Monta Ellis knew early his shot wasn't falling. Unlike in the past, Golden State's mercurial scorer didn't force the issue.

Instead, Ellis was content deferring to his teammates and passing the ball around. As a result, the Warriors are off to their best start in 16 years.

Two days after matching his career high in scoring, Ellis had 15 points and 11 assists, Dorel Wright added 24 points and the Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers 109-91 on Friday night.

"I saw in the beginning of the game that it wasn't my game so I tried to do other things to get my team involved," Ellis said. "I know when my day is going to be good and when my day is going to be bad. We just went off the flow, ran and made plays and came out with the win."

Ellis, who had 46 points in a season-opening win over Houston on Wednesday night, had an off night shooting, but made three 3-pointers and came within two assists of tying his personal best.

The win might have been costly.

Second-year guard Stephen Curry re-injured his right ankle in the third quarter. The second-year guard, who originally hurt the ankle in the preseason and aggravated it in the Warriors' season-opening victory against Houston on Wednesday night, did not return.

"It's more rehab, that's all that means," said Curry, who had 16 points before getting hurt. "Just got to be smart about it now and try to get it back to 100 percent and get it stronger so that even if I do step on somebody's foot I can recover. We'll find out tomorrow and see how it reacts."

Blake Griffin, the top overall pick in 2009 who missed all of last season because of a knee injury, had his second straight double-double for the Clippers with 14 points and 10 rebounds while playing in foul trouble most of the second half.

Los Angeles couldn't recover from Golden State's 21-2 run to open the third quarter.

"It is frustrating to be down at the beginning of the second half and come out and just be torn apart like that," Griffin said. "We've got to bounce back."

The Warriors are 2-0 for the first time since 1994 when they won their first five before finishing 26-56.

Ellis is a big reason.

"That's maturity," coach Keith Smart said. "He saw how the defense was playing, read it, saw that other guys were playing well and just made plays and simply became the facilitator. That's the maturity of where he is at right now."

Golden State's good feelings after the game were tempered by the injury to Curry, who was hurt while trying to get around a pick set by Griffin with 6:03 left in the third quarter.

Curry rolled his right foot and immediately fell to the floor in pain. When play was halted, trainers rushed out to Curry, who lay on the court for several moments while surrounded by teammates and Smart.

Curry eventually was helped to his feet and limped slowly off the court. He was examined in the trainer's room and did not return. He is listed as day to day.

Before getting hurt, Curry scored six straight points to start the third quarter and ignited a 21-2 run that put Golden State ahead for good. Ellis had five points during the streak while Lee added four, then later scored on a three-point play to give the Warriors their biggest lead of the night at 87-63.

Wright helped pick up the scoring slack once Curry left, matching his career high with six 3-pointers.

Griffin did most of his scoring in the first quarter before heading to the bench with three fouls. He finished 6 of 14 from the floor and added three assists for the Clippers (0-2).

"We have a lot of growing pains, a lot of things to work on," Los Angeles coach Vinny Del Negro said after his team shot 38.6 percent from the floor. "We have to have more of a defensive sense of urgency, especially in the third quarter. We weren't aggressive but Golden State spreads you out."

Ellis notched his 15th career double-double for Golden State, which beat Los Angeles for the ninth time in the last 10 games between the two teams at Oracle Arena.

NOTES: The game was the 5,000th in Warriors' franchise history. They are 2,295-2,2705. ... It was Asian Heritage Night at Oracle Arena and the crowd of 17,408 rose in a standing ovation when reserve Jeremy Lin checked into the game with 2:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. Lin, who grew up in the Bay Area, didn't score but hustled for a loose ball that brought the crowd to its feet again.