Warriors Dismantle Spurs

By Travis Atkinson

The most anticipated game of the NBA season to this point did not live up to the hype surrounding it, as the defending champion Golden State Warriors easily trounced the San Antonio Spurs 120-90, behind 37 points and six three pointers from reigning MVP Steph Curry.

The Warriors jumped out to a six-point lead thanks to eight first quarter turnovers from San Antonio that Golden State quickly turned into points. Over half of the Warriors 29 first-quarter points came off of San Antonio turnovers. Curry was on fire from tipoff, scoring 15 of his game high 37 points in the first twelve minutes of action. On the night, Curry shot 12 of 20 from the field, including 6 of 9 from behind the arc. He also added five steals in only 28 minutes of action.

Golden State took control of the game early in the second quarter, going up by as many as 19 points before the Spurs cut the lead to 15 going into halftime. San Antonio proved incapable of keeping the Warriors from scoring inside; consistently allowing Curry, Sean Livingston, and others to get open looks in the paint. Livingston hurt the Spurs with his strong play against their second unit. He had 11 points in the first half; repeatedly beating Spurs defenders on drives into the lane, including this coast-to-coast jam. With Duncan out of the line-up, the Spurs interior defense was exposed. Overall, Golden State outscored San Antonio 52-36 in the paint.

San Antonio seemed poised to make it a game when they cut the lead to 10 points early in the third quarter, but it only took a few big shotsfrom Chef Curry to spur a Golden State resurgence that soon saw the Warriors up by over 20 points. San Antonio was outscored 33-19 in a third quarter that saw Curry consistently torch the Spurs defense to the tune of 18 points before sitting out the entirety of the fourth.

Overall it was a lackluster performance from San Antonio on offense and defense. The Spurs allowed Golden State as a team to shoot 51% from the field and 42% from behind the arc. The Warriors racked up 31 assists as they moved the ball with ease against a Spurs defense that looked slow on rotations and failed to negotiate Golden State’s screens. In comparison, San Antonio managed to shoot just 41% overall and mustered only 21 assists. 

Kawhi Leonard led the way for the Spurs with 16 points and 5 rebounds. He was one of only three Spurs players (David West and Boban Marjanovic) to score in double figures. LaMarcus Aldridge was conspicuously M.I. A. in the blowout loss. With Duncan out, it was expected that Aldridge would step-up with a big performance. But instead, he went 2 of 9 from the field, scoring five points and collecting only three rebounds in a disappointing performance. Aldridge is a franchise player who was brought over in free agency to help the Spurs win championships. The 6’-11”, 240 lb. power forward was acquired to take advantage of “small-ball” teams like Golden State. It’s troubling that he would do a vanishing act in the first big game of the season. Both Leonard and Aldridge played only 25 minutes as the blowout saw both teams’ benches play most of the fourth quarter, and neither team had a player log 30 or more minutes.

The lone bright spot for San Antonio was the performance of David West, who got the start at center in replace of the injured Tim Duncan. West scored 12 points in just 19 minutes of action and seemed to be the only Spurs player who didn’t look lost in the clouds.

With the victory, Golden State improves to a league best 41-4, and continues to chase the 1996 Chicago Bulls (72-10) for the best record in NBA History. The Spurs fall to 38-7 on the season. While that is still good enough for the second best record in the league, both teams’ play tonight shows that the gap between #1 and #2 is still very large. As San Antonio coach Greg Popovich put it in post-game interviews, “It was like men and boys out their tonight.”

This was the first of four matchups between Golden State and San Antonio this season. They’ll face each other again March 19th in San Antonio. Golden State hasn’t had much success versus the Spurs in San Antonio recently. Golden State has lost 32 straight games in San Antonio, their last win coming in the 1996-1997 season. The Spurs lead the all-time series 103-53 and have won 8 of the last 12 games.