The Warriors were dominated on the boards in their opening night blowout loss to San Antonio on Tuesday, losing the rebounding battle 55-35.
It’s only one game, but ESPN basketball analyst Marc Spears thinks it may be an indicator of a more systemic problem, telling the Murph and Mac Show on Friday morning that without a true rim protector on the roster, Golden State may consider making changes if their struggles continue.
“The one thing the Warriors do have to be concerned about is they have two young guys on their team that aren’t playing,” Spears said. “In the previous two years every roster spot was pretty much filled with guys who were going to help. So I think they could use another rim protector, maybe a guy like Joel Anthony. Somebody that’s a great rebounder, somebody that blocks shots, but if these rebounding struggles continue, somebody might have to be cut to bring in a veteran guy that can help on the boards.”
Zaza Pachulia was brought in to replace Warriors rim protector Andrew Bogut, and was horrendous in his first game, corralling just three rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Spears said that much of Pachulia’s ineffectiveness came from a game plan draw up by Greg Popovich to exploit the veteran center specifically.
“Zaza Pachulia has to rebound better than that, and you’ve got to remember the team they played against,” Spears continued. “Popovich specifically wanted to pick on Zaza and take it to him and basically show a weakness in the Warriors defense. They got a bunch of offensive rebounds, they got killed the boards and for the Warriors to win they have to do well on the boards and they got dominated. Absolutely dominated, and that was the key.”
Listen to the full interview below.