SAN FRANCISCO – Friday night had all the makings to be a trap game.
The Warriors were coming off two days of rest after overcoming a 20-point deficit to stun the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. They were hosting a shorthanded San Antonio Spurs team, which had lost its last five games.
The Spurs’ fate has already been decided. They join the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons as having the best lottery odds to land the No. 1 overall pick of the upcoming draft and presumably French phenomen Victor Wembanyama.
But every game from here on out matters for the Warriors as they try to maintain their spot outside the play-in tournament in the Western Conference standings.
Coach Steve Kerr had concerns Golden State would find itself in trouble if it let its guard down.
And that’s exactly what the Warriors did — again.
Golden State faltered early Friday night, but overcame its slow, sloppy start before using a fourth-quarter surge to coast past the Spurs 130-115.
Stephen Curry scored 33 points, Klay Thompson had 31 and Jordan Poole added another 27 off the bench to lead Golden State to its fifth win in six games.
“We did enough to win,” Kerr said. “And sometimes that’s what it’s about in an 82-game season.”
Kerr cited a lack of focus early on being the culprit yet another poor start.
The Warriors turned the ball over five times in the first five minutes of the game, and the Spurs jumped ahead by as many as nine points in the opening quarter. San Antonio led for most of the second quarter, too, before a late 12-point burst by Poole and a Kevon Looney dunk helped the Warriors see a three-point advantage at the break.
There was a scary moment during that run where Draymond Green appeared to injure his right knee after colliding with Spurs guard Tre Jones. Green went to the locker room before the second quarter ended but was good to go to start the third. He finished the game with four points, 11 assists and six rebounds in 29 minutes.
The Spurs went for a run in the third before the Warriors put the game away in the final stanza.
After San Antonio tied the game at 90 with 10:51 left in the fourth, Curry and Poole led Golden State on an 8-0 run over the next 70 seconds.
The Warriors kept the Spurs at bay from there. They outscored the visitors 43-27 in the fourth.
“We limited our turnovers down the stretch. We did a better job defensively in the meat of the fourth quarter and then we were able to pull away,” Kerr said. “Just didn’t feel like we had our best stuff tonight but we did enough to win and got it done.”
After scoring only four points in the first half, Thompson dropped 27 in the final two quarters on 10 of 13 shooting (7 of 10 from deep.)
“Staying patient and trying to work within the flow of the offense,” Thompson said, “that allowed me to spring free and get a lot of good looks.”
The Warriors remain in sixth place in the Western Conference standings. They have the same record (41-37) as the fifth-seeded Clippers, though Los Angeles currently wins the tiebreaker by having a better division record.
Golden State could use Friday’s slow start as a learning lesson for Sunday in Denver, a game that the Warriors will have to be more locked in at the jump if they want a chance at taking down the top-seeded Nuggets.
“We gave [the Spurs] life with some turnovers and some poor defensive play, and they played really well for a long stretch. So our focus at the beginning of the game has to be better for sure in Denver on Sunday,” Kerr said. “That’s the best team in the West so we’re going to have to be sharper.”
Thompson has high confidence that the Warriors will do just that.
“Denver is a tough place to play but we’ve won there before in the regular season and playoffs, so we gotta rely on our experience and just our hunger especially at this point in the season,” he said. “It’s not going to be an easy task going in there and getting a win, but I know we’re more than capable.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com