ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors (0-0) opened their 2016-17 campaign against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Warriors were without Damian Jones (pectoral surgery) while the Spurs were without Danny Green (left quad strain).
1st Quarter – Bottom Falls Out Late
The Spurs got off to a strong start, after Kevin Durant missed the opening three from the left arc after the tipoff. Tony Parker came right back with a lefty scoop past Stephen Curry.
But Durant answered with a top-of-the-key jumper…
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…but the Warriors appeared to have the jitters after that.
LaMarcus Aldridge hit an inside jump hook, Klay Thompson raced up the court, but missed a reverse layup too hard, and Pau Gasol nailed a jumper on a catch-and-shoot from the right wing.
After a bad pass from Zaza Pachulia to Curry on a cut, Kawhi Leonard missed a three, which Durant corralled…
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…but Draymond Green missed a bunny at the rim on a nice feed from “KD”.
Gasol missed a carbon-copy jumper of his last try, then Steph went upcourt with the ball, attacked left baseline, went all the way back out the right arc, and lofted a splash from deep over Gasol:
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Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich didn’t like what he saw and immediately called a timeout as Curry halved the San Antonio lead to 10-7 with 8:06 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Klay missed again, but Durant went with the lefty dribble-pop-fade for a jumper, then got a right post jumper fading away from Kyle Anderson:
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After Parker missed a spinning fade over Steph, Green grabbed the board, got the ball to KD on the right arc, and he splashed for a quick seven points in a row, giving the Warriors a 14-12 lead with 6:00 to play:
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Both teams had multiple empty possessions after that, but Pachulia had a brilliant behind-the-back pass on a hot-potato catch from Draymond. Thompson received the ball wide open in the left corner, but he missed the trey.
Eventually, Curry ended the mutual drought by freezing Anderson on the right wing with a behind-the-back crossover, and hit free throws at the line.
Andre Iguodala, Ian Clark, and Shaun Livingston all checked in, as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr left Green and Curry in there, but Aldridge found Jonathon Simmons cutting to the hole, Iguodala missed a jumper as he was nursing being hit in the family jewels, and Patty Mills darted upcourt for a layup, then got a steal.
Mills missed the transition layup past Steph, but Aldridge and Leonard were too big for Curry to defend the rim and Kawhi eventually got the tip-in as Kerr called timeout with the Spurs retook the lead, 18-16.
Draymond and Curry played pick-and-roll that got Green a strong layup down the left side, with the right hand slapping the backboard…
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…but Steph missed his next two triples.
Durant got two blocked shots in succession, one against former Warrior David Lee…
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…and David West made an impressive post-up move past Simmons for a lefty jam…
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…but Lee had come in and was a nemesis on the offensive boards as he was with Golden State years ago, getting to the line and adding a putback after Simmons missed a dunk, which gave the Spurs a 25-20 lead.
Clark missed an open three, and Mills made the Dubs pay with an upfake and side-step for a trey.
The Spurs weren’t done, though, as Livingston threw the ball away at halfcourt. Simmons got the ball and drilled a three with just two ticks on the clock and, suddenly, San Antonio found themselves up, 31-20 after the first frame.
2nd Quarter – Sparks Can’t Start A Fire
The Warriors couldn’t light a spark at the beginning of the second stanza, although Klay made a nice upfake-and-fade that trickled in.
Draymond bricked a runner then threw a bad outlet that led to Leonard free throws, but Curry popped a triple from the top, and Popovich called timeout to tell Gasol to close out better on the pick-and-roll.
The Spurs lead was trimmed to 42-28, and Steph got the ball to Green for layup, Draymond scored another layup in transition from Iguodala on a missed Leonard runner, and Curry got a runner to bounce in after upfaking past Kawhi at the top.
But Leonard still got to the line and Aldridge hit a jumper on an iso over Draymond, and the Spurs still held a 14-point lead at 48-34.
Out of a TV timeout, Curry drove in for a scoop, and-one…
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…then after Parker lost the ball to Green, Steph stopped on a dime in front of Leonard and Gasol retreating, and drilled a triple, cutting the Spurs’ lead to 50-40 and prompting Popovich to call timeout with 3:17 to go:
Pull up and #SPLASH on TNT🔥 pic.twitter.com/GlhHactIcu
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) October 26, 2016
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After the timeout and a missed Curry three heat-check, Iguodala grabbed the long offensive rebound and found Durant on the right side for some big steps to the rim for a jam:
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Leonard missed a long post up over Steph, but Thompson couldn’t connect on a side-step three from the right arc as Green found him with the Spurs on their heels.
Still, later, Draymond found KD on the right side again and once more Durant slammed it home, closing the Warriors to within 52-44 with 2:02 left.
But Manu Ginobili ran pick-and-roll with Aldridge and the defense retreated to leave him wide-open on the right wing for a three, KD couldn’t answer with a three of his own, and Aldridge got a dunk down the lane on a roll with Kawhi.
Durant found himself iso’ed against Mills in the post, but couldn’t draw the foul against the help as he spun away, and Mills hesi’ed past Curry for another in transition bucket.
Just like that, the Spurs were back up, 59-44 with 41.6 seconds remaining.
Out of the timeout, Steph threw a swing pass out of bounds, and, Leonard made an impressive left baseline layup shaking off contact from Iguodala.
The Warriors answered as Curry threw the ball in the high post to Green, who then found Iguodala open for a dunk with eight seconds to play…
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…but Simmons hit another three before the buzzer, and San Antonio went into the break with a commanding, surprising 64-48 lead.
Aldridge and Leonard paced the Spurs with 12 and 18 points, respectively, but Mills (3 of 13 team assists) and Simmons (15 points) were the difference off the bench.
Steph and KD led the Warriors with 18 and 14 points, respectively, but Klay was just 1-for-7 and the bench was outscored by a whopping margin of 30-6.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @asaulrika68)
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