OAKLAND — A season after a breathtaking 24-0 run to start the season, the Warriors were annihilated by the San Antonio Spurs 129-100 on opening night.
Gregg Popovich’s squad waltzed into Oracle Arena, pounded the Warriors in the post and possibly created a formula for other NBA teams looking to expose Golden State early in the season
The Warriors were blown out in every sense of the word. They were down by 18 at halftime, trailed by double-digits for the entire third quarter and fans started streaming for the exits with eight minutes still remaining in the game.
Steve Kerr’s ball movement that made the Warriors famous appeared to have several kinks, they were bricking routine three-pointers (21.2 percent on the night) and even Draymond Green was caught out of position a few times on defense.
The Spurs exposed Golden State’s flaws right from the opening tip. Kawhi Leonard attacked the paint, scoring 35 points and sank all 15 of his free throws. San Antonio won the rebounding advantage 54-35. LaMarcus Aldridge was a major problem in the second half with 26 total points and 14 rebounds, while Zaza Pachulia had an extremely underwhelming debut — 2 points, 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. Golden State’s bench lacked any type of punch and failed to hit a single three-pointer.
The scarier part is that Kevin Durant and Steph Curry didn’t play poorly at all, and the Warriors were still railroaded. Durant finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists; Curry added 26 points and 4 assists. Klay Thompson had a shaky night, hitting just 1-of-6 three-pointers and scored just 11 points. Green added 18 points and led the team with 12 rebounds.
The final score says it all: 129 points means the Warriors were completely out of sync on the defensive end of the floor. Steve Kerr will have plenty of film to make corrections, oh, and another 81 regular season games.