The Golden State Warriors have gone two consecutive playoff years without having to face the San Antonio Spurs, to whom they lost in the second round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs.
With all the talk of the Spurs winning the free agent race for LaMarcus Aldridge and being more favored to win the 2016 NBA championship than the 2015-champion Warriors, is there still a chip left on the Warriors’ shoulders from the 2013 ouster at the hands of the Spurs?
“Yeah, I guess so,” said Klay Thompson (rather reluctantly) at USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team mini-camp last month in Las Vegas. “Yeah, I think we should. They knocked us out, but yeah.”
Harrison Barnes told us that at least some of the Warriors that were around for the 2013 series wouldn’t mind a rematch.
“We talked about that as a team, just kind of amongst each other,” said Barnes. “It just doesn’t really feel right until we have a series against them. I think everyone remembered the level of play in which they pushed us.”
Stephen Curry certainly remembers it, scoring 44 points in Game 1 against the Spurs back in that 2013 second-round showdown. However, the Warriors blew an 18-point lead and lost in double overtime as Manu Ginobili hit the game-winning three-pointer with 1.2 seconds to play.
The Warriors actually tied the series 2-2 at one point, but poor shooting by the #SplashBrothers in Game 5 and accumulation of injuries, along with the steadiness of the Spurs’ system, resulted in Golden State succumbing 4-2 against San Antonio.
Another playoff matchup against the Spurs seems inevitable, but Draymond Green reminded us that there’s a new set of dynamics now, although seven players from 2013 are still on the team (Curry, Thompson, Barnes, Green, Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli, and Brandon Rush).
“That’s a completely different team, we’re a completely different team, we got a different coach. So much has changed since then,” said Green. “If you tried to go on with that goal, some guys wouldn’t even understand.”
Head coach Steve Kerr touched on the Spurs in a recent podcast with ESPN’s TrueHoopTV.
When asked if he was happy the Warriors avoided the Spurs in the 2016 NBA Playoffs, Kerr laughed but acknowledged that they were a concern, “You kidding me? We won the whole thing. I mean, who cares? I thought down the stretch, the Spurs were the best team in the league for like the last twenty games and I thought, with the West being as strong as it was, I thought they were our number one competitor, just because of their knowledge and their experience and their talent and their coaching and everything else.
“But, in the end, as Al Davis once said, ‘Just win, baby.’ Don’t worry about anything else. I’m just happy we won.”
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via NBAE/Getty)
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