The Warriors have reached unparalleled heights in the past five seasons but you can only embrace their reality if you look at their path to get there, and their war with the Clippers in the spring of 2014 was one of their most important stops on that road.

Before they embark on their postseason run, let’s go back to the last time the Warriors and Clippers saw each other in the postseason. 

In 2013-14, LA was at the height of its Lob City powers, headed by Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, securing the third seed with 57 wins and the best offense in the league (107.9 points per game). After losing handily in the playoffs two years in a row, they were primed to make the jump with Blake Griffin posting his best year to date. 

But in the first round they would face the fresh-faced Warriors, a year removed from an upset from the sixth seed and a near defeat of the Spurs in the second round, led by first-time all-star Stephen Curry. 

The Warriors stole game one on the road behind a balanced attack and what would become a patented third-quarter run. The Clippers would end up narrowly winning the series in seven games, the decisive moments coming on a questionable swallowed whistle on a Curry three in the waning moments of game three after a 32-23 fourth quarter in the Warriors favor and a 126-121 LA win in game seven. 

Curry, in only his third playoff series, was possibly the best player in those seven games, posting 23 points and 8.4 assists and going face-t0-face with Paul. 

The Clippers ended up losing the next round to the Oklahoma City Thunder, then again in the 2015 conference semifinals to the Houston Rockets after taking a 3-1 lead, and would not win another playoff series, eventually trading away Paul in the summer of 2017 and Griffin in Jan. 2018 and losing Jordan to free agency last summer to put an end to their franchise’s first-ever title window. 

Meanwhile, the Warriors have been almost untouchable since the after the summer of 2014.

But now, five years and two distinct paths later, the two teams will face each other once again.

Since that date, the Warriors have gone 17-3 against the second sons of Staples Center, losing only on Christmas 2014, Jan. 2018 and Nov. 2018, the last of which led to the Draymond-Durant altercation that launched a thousand dreams of the Warriors’ demise. 

What was once a budding rivalry has become a slaughter.

“It’s totally different,” Shaun Livingston said. “What made it a really good matchup was the chippiness between ‘em and the competition level, how high it was… the altercations… the quality of players between both teams.”

The biggest catalyst in the demise of the rivalry has been Curry: In games that Curry has played in since the beginning of the 2014-15 season, the Dubs are 17-1, the lone loss coming on Curry’s greatest weakness (besides slippery floors), Christmas. 

He has averaged 30.6 points – including five games of 40 or more – shot 52.5% from the field and 46% from three, and put up some of his best ball-handling and distance shooting highlights. 

He has been just as good against starting point guard Patrick Beverly (13-1 in game Curry has started), who just last Dec. 23 incited a 42-point outing fit with a game-winning layup from the two-time MVP. 

Beverley is a known instigator but his tactic, while propelling him to a starting role on a playoff team after three years playing overseas, has been less than effective against the Oracle Arean assassin. 

“Nothing distracts me from basketball… historically speaking it hasn’t worked,” Curry said. 

The two teams look drastically different even since that game last December. The Warriors, of course, added Demarcus Cousins, who made his debut against LA in January. 

The Clippers were active at the deadline, expunging of Tobias Harris’s burgeoning contract and in turn losing their best player, leaving the team in the hands of Lou Williams (20 points per game) and Danilo Gallinari (19.6 ppg). 

But they have rebounded well, picking up a sharpshooter in Landry Shamet (10.6 ppg, 45% on threes), a defensive dynamo and playoff veteran in Avery Bradley (two-time all-defense and a dramatic buzzer-beater in the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals) and surprising big-man Ivica Zubac.

Despite all of the shuffling and the lack of a top-flight player, Doc Rivers has led the Clippers to a top-five offense, posting 115.1 points per game, 38.8% shooting from three and a league-leading 28.5 free throw attempts per game. 

They attack in the paint, and while they only shoot 26 threes a game (28th in the league) they shoot them exceedingly well (second in percentage). 

Because of their strong bench – Williams and Montrezl Harrell have combined for 39.5 ppg and 8.2 assists per game from the second unit since Tobias Harris was traded to the 76ers– they rarely ever let up and never post a lineup with many holes in it. 

“They got one of the greatest scorers off the bench ever in Lou Williams… they continue to put pressure on you when they come in the game,” Livingston said on Friday. 

None of their lineups, however, have higher than a plus-2.8 plus-minus, that of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Beverley, Shamet, Gallinari and Zubac, not surprisingly the best shooting and most defensively versatile unit they have and the one of the two or three that matches up well with the Warriors (replace Zubac with Harrell and either Beverley or Gilgeous-Alexander with Williams and that is their small-ball). 

Their most recent matchup, in the final regular season game at Oracle, the Warriors overwhelmed the Clippers, 131-104. The Clippers were without Beverley and Gallinari, however, but it is the only game between the two since their roster changes. 

Their only chance at stealing games in this series (besides the LA nightlife) will be from Harrell and Zubac attacking the boards and Beverley, Bradley and Gilgeous-Alexander pestering and pressuring Curry, Thompson and whoever is the point guard in the second unit. They will get one or two dynamite performances from Lou Williams, but even then the Warriors will be able to match up offensively, as the Clippers still will have no answer for Durant if he decides to be aggressive.

The Clippers are a chippy, aggressive team that never lets up, from the first man on the bench to the last, as we’ve seen in their matchups this season, and they will certainly poke their sticks at the Warriors until they pierce the skin.