By BILLY WITZAPRIL 19, 2014  LOS ANGELES — More than an hour before Saturday’s game, Stephen Curry sat alone on the Golden State Warriors’ bench. He looked like a boxer waiting to go to work, covered from head to toe in workout gear, a hooded sweatshirt shrouding most of his head, his eyes peeking out and fixed straight ahead.  It was a fitting image to project, even for Curry, one of the N.B.A.’s most sublimely skilled players.  What was expected to be a contentious Western Conference first-round playoff series got off to a combative start as Golden State beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 109-105, in an uneven, choppy affair. Both teams struggled with foul trouble — the Clippers’ Blake Griffin and the Warriors’ Andre Iguodala fouled out — as well as turnovers, poor shooting and an inability to corral defensive rebounds.  The sixth-seeded Warriors, who frittered away an 11-point fourth-quarter lead, went ahead for good when Draymond Green grabbed an offensive rebound off a shot by Curry and made two free throws with 24 seconds left. But the game swung about a minute and a half earlier.  Chris Paul, who also struggled with foul trouble, led a three-on-one break with the Clippers leading, 103-102. Harrison Barnes chased the play down and blocked Paul’s layup attempt, starting a fast break the other way that Barnes finished by sinking a 3-pointer.  “That was the turning point,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “You know the old attitude in the N.B.A.: If they miss a fast-break layup, they’re coming back and scoring.”  Paul, who finished with 28 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds and 4 steals, appeared ready to burnish his reputation as one of the game’s best closers. Instead, after Green’s free throws put the Warriors ahead, Paul lost the ball out of bounds with 18.9 seconds left and missed two free throws with 11.8 seconds left.  When asked about his miscues, Paul said, “Which one?”  Griffin played less than four minutes in the first half, picking up three fouls, and he finished with 16 points and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes. When he committed his sixth foul, trying to slap a rebound away from David Lee with 48.3 seconds left, his mouth was agape.  Looking incredulous as he watched the replay on his way to the bench, Griffin flipped a cup of water over his shoulder, splashing a Golden State fan.  “If I did, I apologize,” Griffin said with a shrug. “It’s water.”  As fiercely competitive as the game was, the teams reached a momentary détente Saturday morning when a few players from each side attended a chapel service together. That is common before N.B.A. games, but when the teams played here early this season, the Clippers scheduled a separate time for the Warriors because they did not want to mingle.  The enmity that exists between the teams has a brief history, but it is rich.  It began early last season when the Clippers, who had been routed at Golden State, took offense at the way the Warriors were celebrating. Paul suggested that the Warriors were acting as if they had won a title. Cold stares and sharp elbows have been part of the series since.  The teams’ four games this season included nine technical fouls, two ejections and a flagrant foul. On Dec. 25, Green was ejected for elbowing Griffin, and Griffin followed suit later when he picked up a second technical, for tussling with Andrew Bogut. Afterward, Griffin called the Warriors’ tactics “cowardly basketball.”  When the teams met again in mid-March, Jermaine O’Neal confronted Griffin in the hallway outside their locker rooms after the game, and they exchanged words.  Most of the talking in recent days had come from the Warriors. Bogut, who is out with a cracked rib, said he expected the series to be a blood bath. Klay Thompson, who likened Griffin to a bull in a china shop, said, “How can a guy that’s so big and strong flop so much?”  The Clippers, the West’s third seed, appeared intent on letting their play speak for them. They jumped to a 12-1 lead, forcing Golden State, which missed its first eight shots, to call two timeouts.  With the Warriors’ top shooters struggling — Curry was 6 of 16 from the field and turned the ball over seven times, and Thompson shot 7 of 20 and had four turnovers — Golden State relied on its ball movement to get back on track.  “We’re a team without a lot of playoff experience, and we’re talking about doing something special,” O’Neal said. “To be able to absorb that — I don’t know what it was, 12-1 — in a tough environment and we turn the ball over, to just stay composed. Nobody’s head was down. That’s a sign of growth.  “If we’re going to be successful in this series, then we’ve got to keep doing that. That’s going to be the difference — what team can stay composed in the moment.”  A version of this article appears in print on April 20, 2014, on page SP7 of the New York edition with the headline: Warriors Strike First Blow Against Clippers in Next Stage of Hostilities. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
Harrison Barnes’s late block of Chris Paul started a crucial fast break that propelled Golden State to a Game 1 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.