But according to ESPN Stats & Info, the Warriors made 9 of 10 shots when the reigning Defensive Player of the Year was the primary defender.
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To be sure, the Warriors still have another major hurdle to go: winning in San Antonio.
That answer was definitive as well.
But after blowing through the Cleveland, Chicago and IN by a combined 77 points, it was a dominating 120-90 victory over the Spurs that may have been the most demonstrative message to an entire league. Green (14.7 points, 9.5 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocked shots per game) has the edge in versatility and toughness but Aldridge (15.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game) has the edge in heft and size down low.
Sans Tim Duncan, who is out for the game due to a sore knee-although it could just be Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich messing with the league again and playing his mind games against a rival squad- the Spurs will be led newborn superstar Kawhi Leonard and offseason prized acquisition LaMarcus Aldridge in the match-up pegged as one of the highly anticipated games of the season.
“It was like men and boys out there tonight as far as the toughness and aggressiveness in every facet of the game”, Popovich said. “Aggression was one. Shooting was another one”. It was the whole package. “But it’s not going to be the case next time we see them”. We were slow, not every sharp. “It was no game”.
Kerr mentioned that the Spurs use Leonard similarly to how the Warriors use their ultra-versatile star, Draymond Green. Celebrities are the norm at Oracle Arena now, but even Jay Z was sitting courtside long before the rest of the celebrity crowd arrived. “Not just for our fans, but our guys, too”.
And on this night, after such tremendous pregame buildup, he didn’t even need a fourth quarter.
But, in the meantime, it’ll be nice to see the two best teams in the National Basketball Association go head-to-head for the first team. “There are butterflies in your gut”.
Win Prediction: It’s anybody’s game and will be an exciting one! When you start out mentally with eight turnovers in the first quarter, it tells you something.
And while San Antonio nearly seemed like an afterthought amid Golden State’s 24-0 start, the Spurs are merely on pace for the third-best record ever. And Leonard guarded Curry for much of the time when both were on the court, from early in the first quarter through later in the third when the game was out of hand.
Rockets 112, Pelicans 111: NEW ORLEANS – James Harden scored 35 points and Trevor Ariza added a season-high 31 to lead Houston.
You can’t talk about the Warriors without first mentioning Stephen Curry who leads the league in all sorts of different categories including points per game (30.1) and PER (32.7). “Take it and learn from it”.
“His defense was tremendous”, said Kerr. But it’s also safe to say Golden State is feeling pretty good about itself.
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“At this point, they are better than us”, Spurs veteran guard Manu Ginobili said. “Whoever we are playing, we’re are really kind of stubborn, but we really just think about us”.
