Tyronn Lue gets real in a 19-point loss against the Warriors

For the eighth time in his 935 games as a full-time NBA starter in 2012. James Harden recorded only one assist in a basketball game. Tuesday night’s loss to the Golden State Warriors was an encapsulation a terrible night of shooting in which the Clippers shot just 18.2 percent from three and didn’t “believe in the pass,” head coach says Tyronn Lue.

The Clippers lost their first game of the season against the division rival Warriors, 98-79, despite holding the lead over Golden State. Stephen Curry and the Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night and followed that up with another win on Tuesday, their fourth in the first five games to start the season.

It was another slow start for the Clippers, who trailed by 15 points seven minutes into the first period. They were able to rally thanks to 20 first-half points from James Harden to take a 49-46 halftime lead, but the Warriors responded with a 32-14 third quarter that essentially put the game away.

“I think early in the game we got some really good shots that we didn’t make, and then we stopped believing,” Tyronn Lue said. “One pass, punt. One pass, punt. I thought we stopped believing. But I give our guys credit, we were down 14 or 15, came back and took the lead at halftime. Then they came out in that 3rd quarter and outscored us 32-14 in that 3rd quarter and we could never get it back.”

The third quarter saw Kawhi Leonard and James Harden both from the floora rare occurrence for a team that shakes up its stars with its second unit.

“Kawhi and James got tired at the same time in the third quarter, so they both went out and it snowballed from there,” Lue added. “But (the Warriors) played well defensively. I thought they played us pretty well. We didn’t attack the way we wanted to attack, and we got a little stagnant because of that.”

The Clippers shot just 36.6 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from three, knocking down just six of their 33 three-point attempts on the night. James Harden and Kawhi Leonard each finished with one assist for a team-high 10 assists for the game.

Harden finished the night with 20 points, four rebounds and one assist on 6-of-15 shooting, while Leonard had 18 points, six rebounds and one assist on 7-of-17 shooting.

It’s the first time since the 2017-18 season that the team has scored fewer than 80 points and had 10 or fewer assists in a game.

Bradley Beal missed his second straight game with pain in the lower back and Bogdan Bogdanović entered as a starter in both. Unfortunately, the team got next to nothing from either of these guys to start the year, and that affected the Clippers’ offensive versatility.

Without Beal and with Bogdanovic apparently trying to recover from preseason/offseason injuries, the Clippers are missing another playmaker, a role that Norman Powell excelled at last season.

“I think teams are trying to pressure us more, but we’re missing a key component and that’s Bradley Beal who gives us a shooter, a guy who can play, a guy who can handle the basketball. And so when you add that to the mix, it makes us better. But we just can’t have a lull offensively the whole game, like we have that second unit, but I like to have that second unit. It didn’t happen when both of those guys got tired at the same time, so we put it in a difficult relationship.”

Beal did not travel to San Francisco for the one-game trip, and the team opted to keep him at home rehabbing in preparation for Friday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

In the early parts of this 2025-26 season, the Clippers are 2-0 at home with wins against the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers, while they are 0-2 on the road with losses against the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors.