San Antonio Spurs 87-79 Golden State Warriors: 5 talking points

Heading into their colossal match-up on Saturday with the Golden State Warriors, the San Antonio Spurs had won 34 games in a row at home to begin the season and 43 overall. This game is basically the biggest game in NBA history on the basis of the team’s combined records. Never in the history of the league have two teams faced off, whose records are at least 42 games above .500.That kind of a stat shows the dominance the Spurs and Warriors have been able to exercise on the rest of the league this season. However when it comes to head to head, it is a completely different story. Their lone match-up so far this season on the 25th of January was a 30 point blowout in Oracle Arena courtesy of the Warriors.Then again the history of these two teams in the regular season in San Antonio turns the tide. Golden State has not won a single regular season game in San Antonio since February 14th of 1997, a 32 game losing streak spanning almost 20 years.Coming to the result of the game: streaks stayed alive as San Antonio remained unbeaten at home and denied the Warriors from winning in San Antonio. Here are the five biggest talking points from the showdown between the two West giants:

#1 Spurs dictated pace of the game

Boris Diaw and LaMarcus Aldridge slowed the pace of the game with their post-ups.

The Spurs offense consists of a regular feed into the post, whether it is to LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, David West or Boris Diaw and the rest of the team plays off of those post-ups. In the previous match-up in Oracle, the Warriors played terrorizing defense and never let the Spurs settle into their regular motions and plays.

To make matters worse in an attempt to compete the Spurs began to play an uncharacteristic up-tempo style of offense, which is like gift wrapping the game to the Warriors. This time around the Spurs slowed down the pace of the game, ran their plays involving ball movement and regular post-ups with Diaw early on and later through Aldridge.

Although 17 is no small number but their turnovers were down by a huge margin from the previous encounter (25) and that had a lot to do with the pace they were playing at. Despite their quite number of 17 turnovers they were in the game cause of their defense.

#2 Spurs defense and struggles of the Splash brothers

Both Curry and Thompson had an absolute nightmare shooting the ball.

Coming off of scoring 70 combined points the previous night against the Dallas Mavericks, one would think the Splash brothers- Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson shouldn’t find it hard to get going on Saturday. Instead the duo shot a combined 11 of 38 from the field and a combined 2 of 19 from beyond the arc.

That resulted in the Warriors registering their lowest point total in 184 games and Curry (1 of 12) tying a career high for most three’s missed in a game. Saturday was also the first time this season that Curry attempted three was blocked, courtesy of Danny Green.

While Thompson just found it hard to get going, the Spurs had made a concentrated effort on keeping Curry occupied. They always had a man in front of him, even on his drives to the basket. Whenever help was close, it arrived and Steph failed to escape the double team. Even on switches, the big man would remain in front of Curry as long as he could until a help defender took over.

How San Antonio shut down Curry took Golden State by surprise and they failed to create a secondary means of offense, with a reliable feeder in Iguodala out with an injury.

#3 Golden State Warriors were missing key players

Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala were dearly missed by the Warriors.

This serves as no excuse for the loss the Warriors suffered on Saturday, given that they were in contention to win the game till the final three minutes, but the fact of the matter is the champs were missing key players in Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala and Festus Ezeli.

A lot has been saying about how the Warriors love playing small and how they have absolutely demolished teams with their small death line-up. However, their small line-up is used by Steve Kerr only when they are playing an opponent against whom the line-up can exercise some advantage.

Bogut’s size and defense in the paint is of huge importance to the Warriors. Just imagine if he was fit there would be no starting small line-up for the Golden State and they would not get hurt with the Boris Diaw post up on Harrison Barnes early on.

Iguodala’s importance to the team was taken for granted till he started Game 4 in the NBA Finals last year. He provides a stable and veteran presence on the court while playing with the second unit. Not to mention him being the team’s best one on one defender.

#4 Much better game for LaMarcus Aldridge

LaMarcus Aldridge had a much more confident game this time around.

In the previous match-up between these two teams, Aldridge had 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist and 3 turnovers in 25 minutes. On Saturday, Aldridge had 26 points, 13 rebounds and 2 turnovers in 37 minutes of playing time.

The difference is quite obvious. The game in January was Aldridge’s first with the Spurs against such a tenacious defense. He was shut down in the post by a much smaller Draymond Green. That game mentally affected him so much that he had disabled all his social media accounts after the 30 points loss.

This time just like the rest of the Spurs team, Aldridge had come prepared for what was going to be thrown towards him. By now he has not only adjusted into the Spurs system but has started to thrive on a consistent basis, which was clearly on display in this game.

Seeing Aldridge flourish in a Playoff atmosphere type of game should be a huge sign of relief for Gregg Popovich, now that Aldridge and Leonard are slowly but surely taking over the reigns of this Spurs franchise.

#5 Spurs vs Warriors = Amazing battle in the Western Conference Finals

Spurs vs Warriors- Western Conference Finals match-up?

The Warriors and Spurs will most likely finish first and second seed in the Wester Conference Playoff Standings. Considering the fact that there are no upsets, the Spurs and Warriors are all set to meet in the Western Conference Finals. The two teams are no doubt teh two best teams in the league, let alone only in the West. It’s a pity they can't battle with the NBA Championships on the line.

Nonetheless, the success of both teams are built on more or less the smae principles. A productive deep bench, team defense and an offense that constitutes a lot of man and ball movement. Neither team has a player who has suffered any season ending injuries so unlike this match-up in San Antonio, if these teams face off in the Conference Finals, they will be at full strength.

The kind of defensive slugfest that this game was, a seven game series between these two teams with a spot in the NBA Finals on the line would not only be a sight to watch for the NBA family but also for the average NBA fan.