Warriors demolish Spurs, lead series 2-0
Golden State wins 136-100 to improve to 10-0 in the post-season
OAKLAND, Calif. — Steve Kerr provided a strong message, just not from his usual spot on the bench: Play with urgency from the opening tip this time.
The Golden State Warriors did just that for their ailing coach watching from the locker-room, and left Gregg Popovich questioning and criticizing his Spurs players for a lack of belief and feeling sorry for themselves without injured superstar Kawhi Leonard. Leonard missed the game after re-injuring his left ankle in Sunday’s Game 1 loss.
Stephen Curry had 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in three quarters and the Warriors trounced on the short-handed Spurs, running away from San Antonio for a 136-100 rout Tuesday night and a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Kevin Durant added 16 points and Draymond Green provided another impressive all-around performance with 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks as Golden State earned its most lopsided victory of the playoffs to go to 10-0.
“That’s just been the message all year, just play with urgency and start the game off with some energy and throw the first punch,” Durant said.
“Unlike Game 1, we did that tonight. We know they’re a little undermanned but they still play extremely hard, so we knew we couldn’t come out here and relax and think they were just going to give us the game. We had to go take it.”
Jonathon Simmons scored 17 of his 22 points in the first half as the lone bright spot for the Spurs.
“It looked pretty collective to me. I don’t think it was one guy who didn’t believe and he infected everybody else or anything like that. As a group they just let themselves down,” Popovich said.
Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in San Antonio.