Steph Curry/Photo courtesy of Golden State Warriors, NBA.com

The Clippers are now 1-2 this season against the Golden State Warriors after losing 106-98 Sunday at Oracle Arena in Oakland. Afterward, Golden State’s Steph Curry talked about what has become a rivalry of sorts, even though he downplayed that element a bit.

“Yeah, we never called it a rivalry,” said Curry, who had an off-game Sunday with just 12 points on 3 of 9 shooting; he averages 23.6. “It’s usually a competitive game and usually a spirited game. We’ll probably see them down the road in maybe the playoffs. But we’re enjoying sitting on top of the division and having some great success this year.

“We play them one more time down in L.A., so we’ve got to be ready for that game. They’ve been playing well and offensively have been doing a lot of great things, even with Blake (Griffin) out of the lineup. For us, having the defensive effort we had tonight was good.”

The Warriors (49-12) are first in the West and have the best overall record in the league. They will play the Clippers (40-23) for the final time in this regular season March 31 at Staples Center.