It was the Showdown in Oaktown.
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Only that wasn’t the best regular season game ever because the Warriors dominated the Spurs from the opening tip. They’ll be home against Golden State on March 19 and April 10.
To be sure, the Warriors still have another major hurdle left: winning in San Antonio. But this season? While nothing and no one is ideal, they’re playing the best basketball in the league without anyone coming close to them.
NOTES: Asked to describe his anxiety level before the game, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich admitted, “I’ve got butterflies in my gut”. “In every facet of the game, it was men and boys”. Like numerous previous 34, Curry was the catalyst. Frequently, he was a magician with the ball.
Stephen Curry wasn’t the only one bruising ankles and egos on Monday.
SALT LAKE CITY – Reggie Jackson scored 29 points and Ersan Ilyasova added 16 points to help Detroit hold off a late fourth-quarter rally and beat Utah.
The Spurs covered Curry with Tony Parker, with Manu Ginobili, with Simmons. And Kawhi Leonard couldn’t pull the Spurs out of the sludge.
“Yeah, it did”, Green said after practice. He had Leonard off balance, turning him into a Vine sensation. “Steph is obviously a worldwide phenomenon now and you see a thousand people watching him warm up or you see a couple hundred people at the hotel at 2 a.m. trying to get his autograph, that’s similar to the Michael phenomenon”.
Golden State scored 32 points off the Spurs’ 26 turnovers. LeBron James has walked off a victor in only two of his last nine games against the Spurs.
The superlatives went deeper.
Houston will be a tough team to bounce back against. “Aggression was one, shooting was another, defense, everything”.
Mavs guard Devin Harris sat out Tuesday with a toe injury and center Zaza Pachulia has missed two straight games with a leg injury.
The sides are due to meet three more times before the end of the season, including twice in the final week of the season, before a possible play-off confrontation in the Western Conference finals.
On any given night, the Warriors can out-execute any team. And they didn’t it exclusively by shooting the lights out. San Antonio, which lacked the presence of Duncan, out because of soreness in his right knee, committed a season-high 26 turnovers. Crazy Curry threes. Draymond Green two-way brilliance.
Missing in action was the Spurs big offseason acquisition LaMarcus Aldridge.
Another bright light for the Warriors was reserve guard Shaun Livingston, who had 11 points in the first half before things got out of hand and finished with 13.
We thought we’d be getting an epic clash of legends, a regular season matchup without equal. It would be grossly unfair to pin a blowout like this on Aldridge alone, but it was a discouraging performance from a player who has generally fit in extremely well in San Antonio. “He exudes a lot of confidence and he instills it”, Popovich said.
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The reigning MVP hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter – the second from 27 feet away – to give the Warriors a 76-56 lead. Stephen Curry is averaging 30.3 points and 6.5 assists while Klay Thompson is averaging 20.3 points and 3.9 rebounds. “We understand that we gotta play them three more times this season”. “I’m not embarrassed to face it. They’re much better”.
