Clippers are in the way as Golden State Warriors near a record start

It was the strangest thing, Atlanta Hawks fans inside the old Omni Coliseum standing and cheering the Houston Rockets in the final minutes of a game the Rockets were clearly going to lose.

When the buzzer sounded to end Atlanta’s 22-point victory on Dec. 3, 1993, Hawks players walked over to their Rockets counterparts to offer congratulations.

“It felt like it was a playoff ending,” Kenny Smith, the Rockets’ starting point guard that season, recalled Wednesday during a phone interview. “That’s the only time that happened in my whole career.”

Get the latest in sports with our free newsletter >>

Houston had put together a start worth celebrating. The Rockets’ 15-0 record entering the game against the Hawks tied the 1948-49 Washington Capitols for the most consecutive victories to begin an NBA season.

Smith said he thinks that record will soon fall like another Stephen Curry three-pointer.

Curry’s Golden State Warriors will bring a 12-0 record into Staples Center on Thursday night to face the Clippers, and one thing seems assured: Clippers fans won’t cheer their archrivals no matter what happens to their perfect start.

The last NBA team to open a season with 13 consecutive victories was the 2002-03 Dallas Mavericks, who won their first 14 games. The Warriors’ sizzling start has won the Clippers’ admiration, if not their friendship.

“You have to respect what they’re doing, and the way they’ve gone about it,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. “The best way I can describe it is clutter-free basketball. They don’t have any hang-ups. That’s the way it has to be done.”

Griffin went on to explain that clutter-free basketball meant the Warriors were not letting any off-the-court issues or focus on personal statistics influence their play.

It also helps to avoid the kinds of injuries that have plagued the Clippers recently. Point guard Chris Paul (strained right groin) and shooting guard J.J. Redick (back spasms) were listed as doubtful to play against the Warriors after missing the previous two games.

Paul hurt his groin in the final minute of the Clippers’ 112-108 loss to the Warriors on Nov. 4 in Oakland. He sat out the next game before returning to play in the next two games. Then he was out again, missing his team’s two most recent games after aggravating the injury against the Dallas Mavericks on Nov. 11.

Golden State has mostly hurt psyches during its hot start, a concussion that briefly sidelined center Andrew Bogut and a back injury that has kept Coach Steve Kerr out all season notwithstanding.

Smith, who is now an analyst for TNT, said what makes the Warriors so tough to beat is their ability to play at a high level every night regardless of the circumstances.

“They play effortlessly to play at that eight and nine level,” Smith said of a team that has outscored its opponents by an average of 15.4 points per game.

Curry continues to take his shot-making to historic levels, averaging a league-leading 33.7 points per game and putting himself on pace to shatter the record for three-pointers — 286 — he set last season.

“There probably hasn’t been a player like Steph,” Clippers forward Paul Pierce said, referring to Curry’s ability to get his own shots without relying on screens. “He seems to get it off any time he wants.”

Curry also imposes the Warriors’ frenetic pace on opponents as the primary ballhandler, something the Clippers probably don’t mind as much as many other teams because it’s a style they also prefer.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers famously said luck was involved with Golden State’s winning the NBA title last summer because the Warriors got through the playoffs without facing the Clippers or the San Antonio Spurs, the very teams that had ended their previous two seasons.

Smith said he didn’t agree with Rivers’ contention. At all.

“They were there, they were in the conference finals,” Smith said of the Warriors. “You weren’t good enough to be there to play them. Like, to me, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Smith had more to say on the matter.

“If you were good enough,” Smith said of the Clippers’ belief that they could have beaten the Warriors, “you wouldn’t have made eight changes.”

Smith was referring to the number of newcomers on the Clippers’ roster, one reason the team has looked out of sync at times during its 6-4 start. The lack of familiarity can hurt as a coach learns his players’ tendencies in important moments such as the final minutes of games, Smith said.

“It might be great,” Smith said, “but you don’t know what it is and you have to learn what that is and that’s why I always think it’s too difficult to do that with that many new guys.”

Getting to know each other has been far less of a concern for Golden State, which added only rookie Kevon Looney and end-of-the-bench reserves Jason Thompson and Ian Clark to its roster.

Smith said he believed the Warriors’ consistency would allow them to break the record for victories to start a season, something that could happen Tuesday against the Lakers if they remain unbeaten. Beating the Warriors, it seems, isn’t the only challenge they present.

“There’s a certain level you have to play,” Smith said, “just to be in the game with them.”

CLIPPERS vs. GOLDEN STATE

When: 7:30 p.m., Thursday.

Where: Staples Center.

On the air: TV: TNT; Radio: 980, 1330.

Records: Warriors 12-0, Clippers 6-4.

Record vs. Warriors: 0-1.

Update: Clippers forward Paul Pierce said the highlights he had watched of Blake Griffin in the years before becoming his teammate didn’t fully reveal the extent of his excellence. “The way he handles the ball, the way he consistently shoots outside 15 feet and his passing ability, I didn’t know he had that consistently,” Pierce said. “A lot of the things he’s doing, he’s really developed his game over the years where he’s a complete player to me. I tell him sometimes, ‘Take that extra step back and start shooting more three-pointers.’ ” Griffin has taken only three three-pointers this season — missing them all — but that doesn’t even seem like a fair knock for a player averaging 26.6 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists while shooting a career-best 55.8%.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch

Correspondent Melissa Rohlin contributed to this report.