Clippers rally past depleted Warriors in Darius Garland’s debut

SAN FRANCISCO — The Clippers unleashed their new weapon and rallied for a road win.

Kawhi Leonard had 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists, Darius Garland made his much-anticipated debut, and the Clippers erased a 17-point deficit to beat the short-handed Golden State Warriors, 114-101, on Monday night at the Chase Center.

Garland scored 12 points (with five turnovers), coming off the bench to play nearly 23 minutes in his first game since being acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline last month in the deal that sent James Harden to the Cavaliers.

Garland had been nursing a toe injury since mid-January, then he went down with 1:26 left in the second quarter after a collision with the Warriors’ Moses Moody when they both went for a loose ball and Moody’s right shoulder appeared to get Garland in the face. Both players were shaken but stayed in the game.

Garland’s 3-pointer with 3:09 left in the third quarter pulled the Clippers within 75-68, then Kris Dunn had a steal and layup to make it a five-point game. The Clippers were within 79-77 by the start of the fourth period.

The Clippers took advantage of their superior depth to take the lead for good at 82-81 on a Garland 10-footer. The visitors then gradually pulled away against a Warriors team that had just 10 players available, including two recent call-ups from the G League.

“Just trying to knock the cobwebs off,” Garland said during his postgame interview. “In the first half, that was it. In the second half after I made a couple shots, teammates kept telling me to keep finding it, keep going, be aggressive, and that’s what happened.”

Four other Clippers scored in double figures in a win that pulled them within 1½ games of the Warriors in their duel for eighth place in the Western Conference. The Clippers own a 2-1 lead in the season series with one head-to-head remaining – the regular-season finale on April 12 at the Intuit Dome.

Dunn finished with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go with seven rebounds and seven assists for the Clippers, who shot just 9 for 31 from 3-point range but outscored the Warriors 62-36 in the paint. Bennedict Mathurin added 17 points and seven rebounds. Jordan Miller contributed 12 points, and Yanic Konan Niederhauser added 11 points and nine rebounds.

Brandin Podziemski scored 22 points for the Warriors with Steph Curry sidelined for an 11th consecutive game with a right knee injury, big man Kristaps Porzingis out for his fifth straight contest because of an illness Coach Steve Kerr called “mysterious.” Rookie Will Richard was in a walking boot for his sprained right ankle he hurt in Saturday’s blowout loss to the Lakers. Gary Payton II was also unavailable.

Al Horford added 17 points for Golden State, which has lost five of seven and nine of 14. Podziemski hit eight of his initial 12 shots with three 3-pointers for his second career 20-point half, but he went 1 for 6 for two points after the break.

Golden State shot just 39% from the field overall and went 17 for 48 from 3-point range (35%).

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Garland cited the Leonard’s presence as a key reason for his rush to get back on the court.

“When it first happened, I was kind of skeptical,” he told reporters of joining the Clippers. “But I couldn’t turn down this opportunity to play with another Hall of Famer and having a ball in my hands damn near 99% of the time.”

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The Clippers host Indiana on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.