Clippers don’t know who hit them

The conquering hero stayed on the court to take the modern-day curtain call -- a TV interview -- and received a round of applause from his teammates when he joined them in the dressing room afterward.

It was so loud you could hear it in the hallway.

Baron Davis? Corey Maggette?

Not quite.

Ultimately, this wasn’t about Davis and former Clipper Maggette trading places. It came down to an undrafted rookie guard who had planned on plying his hoop trade in Ukraine -- yes, that Ukraine -- but turned the defensively challenged and lax Clippers inside out on Saturday afternoon with his uncanny shooting.

In making his first NBA start, Anthony Morrow’s 37 points led Golden State past the rapidly spiraling Clippers, 121-103, at Staples Center. That was the most points in a game by an undrafted player in his rookie season.

“I shot 15 for 20, sometimes I don’t even shoot 15 for 20 in drills,” said Morrow, a 6-foot-5 guard from Georgia Tech who had been averaging 7.7 points.

Said Golden State Coach Don Nelson: “This is one of the most exciting things I can remember in a long, long time. I’ve been in the league 30 years and I’ve never seen a performance like that from a guy that got his first opportunity really to start and play consistent minutes. He had the game of a lifetime.”

The Clippers have been getting rocked by these performances but you can understand it, sort of, when this comes from guys named Dirk, Kobe and A.I.

“Who was that guy?” said Baron Davis, who had 25 points and 11 assists in his first game against his former team. “He came out of nowhere. He got hot. He got hot. He got hot. He couldn’t miss.”

Hot would not be a word closely associated with the Clippers (1-8) under any circumstances. The closest they got may have been lukewarm with a momentary surge in the third quarter, erasing a 10-point deficit to take a 68-64 lead on Cuttino Mobley’s jump shot with 6:31 remaining.

Golden State pushed back, finding little resistance, and led by seven at the end of the third. Morrow kept ticking off points and the biggest suspense was whether he’d hit 40. The Warriors nearly got him there but on his last shot at it, a Clipper (rookie Eric Gordon) decided to play some defense and came up with the steal.

Those moments were rare Saturday.

Davis met with Coach Mike Dunleavy on Friday morning to attempt to get on the same page, or maybe in this case, the same chapter. The point guard, who opted out of the last year of his contract with Golden State to sign a five-year, $65-million deal with the Clippers in the summer, noted that “uncertainty” on the floor and lack of confidence.

“We’re still looking for that rhythm out there, that flow. We’re nine games into the season,” he said. “We’re showing some flashes of being a highly competitive team.”

Flashes have resulted in one victory and far too many blowouts. Dunleavy spoke about the lack of awareness and suspect decision-making on the court.

“We’re trying to push the ball, trying to get in the open court, trying to get easy scores,” he said. “But you’ve got to recognize when it’s there and when it’s not there, good shots and bad shots. Right now, our recognition on what is a good shot and a bad shot is not good and it’s contributing to issues we’re having at the defensive end.

“It’s one thing to try to play fast. It’s another thing to fuel the fire of the other team.”

Or to keep throwing up ill-advised three-point attempts.

“We ended up six for 26,” Dunleavy said. “I guarantee you, I could shoot better than that.

“Now. Crippled.”

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Lisa.dillman@latimes.com