OAKLAND — The San Antonio Spurs waltzed into Oracle Arena on Mother’s Day, outplayed the Warriors in nearly every facet of basketball and still found themselves the losers of Game 1, falling 113-111 in the final seconds.
It was an improbable comeback on Sunday – one that will give Golden State even more confidence than they already possess.
Steph Curry hit a 3 with 2 minutes left, Draymond Green finished an And-1 layup underneath the hoop and Curry hit a leaning floater with 13 seconds left to seal the deal for the Warriors. LaMarcus Aldridge missed a corner 3 that would’ve sent the game to overtime.
Racing out to a 25-point lead in the second quarter, the Spurs knocked Golden State completely off their game, just as they did on opening night in October. But Kawhi Leonard re-sprained his ankle, left the game in the second half and the house of cards came tumbling down for San Antonio.
The Warriors used a deafening 18-0 run in the third quarter to trim the lead to 7 points. They hung around until Kevin Durant finally exploded. The free agent acquisition hit a 3 and piped home a dunk to cut the lead to 94-90 with 7:19 to play. Durant gave the Warriors their first lead of the game, 101-100, with an unbelievable scoop shot underneath the bucket. Durant finished with 34 points; Curry carried the entire team for the first three quarters and finished with 40. The two former MVPs played like it down the stretch.
The way the game transpired was mildly surprising, but not shocking. The Warriors had won 23 of their last 24 games and were due for a letdown. Meanwhile, Sunday was a reminder San Antonio is capable of pushing this series the distance if Golden State doesn’t play their very best.
From the opening tip, the Spurs imposed their will on Golden State, a team who looked tentative, rusty and lacking the energy needed to match a Gregg Popovich-coached team. The Warriors committed 18 turnovers, shot just 36.7 percent from the field and lacked energy on defense. Every 50-50 ball ended up in the hands of a Spur. Draymond Green was whistled for a technical and didn’t play at the series-MVP level we’d seen against Portland and Utah. Klay Thompson scored just 6 points.
San Antonio’s game plan was pretty simple: Attack the post and keep the ball moving. LaMarcus Aldridge was a monster (28 points, 8 rebounds), truly playing one of the best games of his career. He put Green and JaVale McGee on a poster dunk and his presence forced the Warriors to play Zaza Pachulia some extended minutes — where he actually performed pretty well. Leonard was quietly a killer (26 points on 11-for-11 from the free throw line), but his presence was missed in the second half. San Antonio’s ball movement produced an array of open shooters. San Antonio outscored the Warriors 56-42 in the paint. The strategy was simple but effective. This game felt like a blowout for the first 30 minutes of action.
Eventually, the Warriors started getting stops on defense and the crowd responded. Shaun Livingston hit two crucial buckets with under five minutes to play. It appeared Livingston was getting minutes over a hobbled Andre Iguodala, who did not play in the second half.
Steve Kerr was in attendance for Game 1, watching the game from the locker room. ABC showed a clip of him giving a halftime speech. It’s starting to look encouraging for a potential Kerr return to the NBA Finals — should the Warriors make it.