Golden State hosts a Clippers team that has lost four straight and five players to injury

The Los Angeles Clippers visit Chase Center on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. local time with a 1-4 record, a four-game losing streak and an injury list that runs five players deep.

The Golden State Warriors are 3-3, having started the season 0-3 and then won three in a row.

The records are close enough to make the game interesting and far enough apart in direction to make it a test. One team is trying to stop a slide; the other is trying to prove a run was not a schedule artifact.

The Clippers are 0-3 on the road, and the Warriors are 1-1 at home.

Los Angeles' season has been defined by two things: a rebuilt roster and a defense that has not held up.

The rebuild is real. Kawhi Leonard is gone, and the keys belong to Darius Garland, Brandon Ingram and Keaton Wagler, the No. 5 pick in the draft.

Wagler has scored in double figures in every game, and he gets to the line at a rate that does not match his shooting. In Minnesota he went 7-for-8 from the line while shooting 2-for-11 from the field.

The Clippers' most recent loss was 127-101 in Minnesota, where the Timberwolves closed the game on a 23-2 run without Anthony Edwards.

Golden State's turnaround has been built on the second unit. Against the Lakers, the Warriors' reserves outscored Los Angeles' bench 50-7.

De'Anthony Melton scored 16 points in that stretch, Georges Niang finished plus-21 and Will Richard was plus-20, mostly on defense.

The rookie Yaxel Lendeborg is the other story. After calling Luka Doncic a whiner following opening night, his rematch produced six points, six fouls and five turnovers.

That is the version of the Warriors that got to .500: a bench that changes games and a rookie who is learning in public.

The Clippers' injury report is the reason this game looks uneven. Yanic Konan Niederhauser is out with a foot issue, Max Strus is out with a foot issue, and Bradley Beal is out with a knee issue.

Brandon Ingram is also listed out with an Achilles issue, and Jordan Miller is out with a shoulder injury.

The Clippers do get some help. Rui Hachimura is back from a quad issue, and Brook Lopez gave them 13 points off the bench in the last game.

Golden State's report is shorter, and the Warriors have been managing their rotation with the back-to-back in mind.

The matchup comes down to whether the Clippers can score in the half court. With Ingram out and Beal out, the shot creation falls to Garland and Wagler.

Golden State's defense has been its best attribute during the three-game run, and the Warriors' bench has been forcing turnovers that turn into transition points.

The Clippers' counter is the free-throw line. Wagler's ability to draw contact is the one part of their offense that does not depend on a made shot.

The last meeting between these franchises that mattered was the play-in game in April, when Golden State beat the Clippers 126-121. That loss ended the Clippers' season and, as it turned out, the Kawhi Leonard era.

For the Clippers, a fifth straight loss would put the rebuild under early pressure, and the schedule does not offer an easy reset.

For the Warriors, a win would move them above .500 for the first time this season and validate the bench-driven run.

Neither outcome would define a season in the first week of November, but both would shape the story each team carries into next week.

The game is also a reminder that roster turnover is not theoretical. The Clippers are starting over, and the Warriors are trying to extend a window.

The Clippers' five absences change the shape of their offense more than their record suggests. Without Ingram and Beal, the ball has to move through Garland on almost every possession, and the Warriors will load up on that action.

Wagler's free-throw rate is the release valve. A rookie who can draw contact gives a short-handed team a way to score when the shot does not fall, and the Warriors' bench unit has been foul-prone in transition.

Golden State's own question is whether the bench performance was real. A 50-7 edge over the Lakers' reserves is the kind of number that repeats against a tired team and disappears against a good one.

Both teams are also dealing with the calendar. Golden State plays Phoenix on Monday, and the Clippers are in the middle of a road trip that has already produced four losses.

That makes Sunday less about a statement and more about which team can hold its shape for the full game.

The Clippers have lost the second half of every game in this streak by double digits, which is the pattern to watch if the game stays close into the third quarter.

Golden State stays home for Phoenix on Monday, the second half of a back-to-back.

The Clippers' road trip continues after this one, which makes Sunday a chance to stop the slide before it becomes the defining fact of the month.

Both teams are missing players, and both have played a schedule that has flattered or punished them unevenly.

The simpler question is the one the game will answer: whether the Clippers' new core can score enough to stay with a team that has found a bench.