One of the ultimate marks of a good basketball team is the ability to overcome deficits and weather storms. Even when a squad is trailing by a substantial amount, it is worth looking at how they carry themselves. Do they fold and fall behind by even more, or do they keep battling and make the game at least somewhat competitive?

On Friday night, the Warriors did the latter, but who it was against mattered just as much. They faced a fully healthy Los Angeles Clippers team and trailed by 22 points in the third quarter, but strong play and smart coaching turned the tide and Golden State came away with a 115-105 win.

“Our guys just hung in there,” Steve Kerr said after the game. “When we were down through most of the first three quarters, they kept their energy up, they kept their spirit up, they were pumping each other up on the sidelines.”

The first half showed the Warriors being simply outplayed by a superior team. The Clippers ran smart offensive plays and the Dubs fell behind. Paul George was left inexplicably open for jumpers on a number of occasions, and he converted, finishing the half with 17 points while making all four of his three-point attempts. Once again, the Warriors badly lost the half’s rebounding battle, this time by a margin of 24-14, which included seven offensive rebounds for Los Angeles. The offense was defined by open looks that were missed and low-IQ plays that are a mark of a team that hasn’t played together a lot. Most notably, a play in the first quarter featured Stephen Curry running to the left corner for a relocation three. However, Kelly Oubre was standing there and didn’t vacate the space, forcing Kent Bazemore to take a contested jumper. The shot missed, and Curry was visibly angry. Curry kept the team afloat with 14 first-half points and seven assists, but they still trailed 65-51. But they probably should have been trailing by more, and the Clippers couldn’t possibly sustain their hot shooting (58.7% from the field) for another 24 minutes. Even the most positive takeaways from the half still had a negative quality to them.

“We can’t get in our feelings like we did in the first half, myself included,” Curry said. “In terms of, if it’s not clicking, we kind of lose our energy a little bit.”

The second half started out with much of the same. Short spurts of solid play were canceled out by stretches of Clipper dominance. By the time the Warriors’ deficit had grown to 20, it felt as though the game might turn into one similar to the first two of the season, both blowout losses.

But then things changed. The players on the floor were better for spacing and played good team offense and defense. Curry heated up. Eric Paschall recognized that he had a mismatch with Ivica Zubac and attacked him offensively to score repeatedly. Brad Wanamaker, who has had a very shaky start to his time as a Warrior, hit two clutch threes. Andrew Wiggins played great defense and added some important scoring of his own, and the team grabbed those all-important rebounds, allowing only three offensive boards in the second half. The game flipped completely to a point that was almost disorienting. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue was shown on camera near the end of the game and appeared to be genuinely shellshocked.

This game came down to adjustments, by both the players and the coaching staff. In terms of the former, the team crashed the glass more in the second half, made their open shots, and tightened up their defense just enough. On the latter side, the coaches recognized that the normal starting lineup wasn’t working against the Clippers. Although they both have good qualities, Oubre and James Wiseman weren’t good matchups. Steve Kerr and his staff instead turned to Mychal Mulder, Damion Lee, Bazemore, Paschall and Kevon Looney to play the shooting guard and center spots, and they stepped up. Furthermore, Curry started the fourth quarter rather than taking his normal rest, which also paid off as the Warriors opened the frame with a 6-0 run.

The Clippers probably didn’t turn in a 100% effort (neither Kawhi Leonard nor Patrick Beverley played as much as they would on a lot of nights), and the win will mask a lot of the issues that the Warriors faced in the game. But the fact that the Warriors overcame a 22-point deficit against one of the NBA’s best teams creates an energy that should carry over.

“I think the thing we can build from this is our belief and our confidence,” Kerr said. “We’ve got to find our way, so tonight is a night about building our confidence.”