Warriors take no prisoners in Game 2
Spurs acutely feel absence of Leonard in 36-point romp
OAKLAND, Calif. — There was no improbable, intense effort to beat the odds this time like the one they stunned the Rockets with last week.
This time, it was what one would expect from a demoralized team facing the mighty Golden State Warriors without two of its starters, including bell cow Kawhi Leonard.
“It’s not what I expected,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “Disappointing.”
With Tuesday night’s 136-100 loss, the Spurs now trail the Warriors 2-0 in the Western Conference finals series. And they head back to San Antonio for the next two games uncertain about the status of Leonard’s sprained left ankle.
The 36-point drubbing marked the third-worst playoff loss in franchise history. The Spurs trailed by as many as 41 points in the second half and never cut the margin to less than 20 after halftime.
“We maybe felt it too much, Kawhi being gone,” Popovich said. “I don’t think they believed, and you have to believe. I don’t think as a group they really did. … We felt sorry for ourselves, we need to get slapped and come back and play Game 3 and see who we are.”
Playing without MVP candidate Leonard is nothing new for the Spurs this postseason. In Game 6 of the second round, they
stunned the Rockets 114-75 in Houston to clinch the series behind 34 points from LaMarcus Aldridge.
It gave them a 5-0 record this season in games played without Leonard and point guard Tony Parker, whose postseason ended in Game 2 against the Rockets after he ruptured his left quadriceps.
But the Warriors aren’t the Rockets.
“I don’t think they started the game with the belief, and it showed in the lack of edge, intensity, grunt, that sort of thing,” Popovich said of his players. “When you play a team as good as Golden State, you are going to get embarrassed if that’s the way you come out. And we did.”
Point guard Patty Mills agreed there was no edge from the start.
“Everyone sensed it, for sure,” Mills said. “The whole building sensed it.”
In leading from start to finish to become just the fifth team in NBA history to begin the postseason 100, the two-time defending West champions smothered the Spurs defensively and scored at will on the other end.
Stephen Curry led Golden State with 29 points after pouring in 40 in Game 1. Six other Warriors landed in double figures.
In a harbinger of things to come, Danny Green missed the Spurs’ first shot of the game, a driving layup. For the game, they shot 37.0 percent from the field (37-of-100).
The Spurs trailed 72-44 at halftime, and it would have been much worse had it not been for Jonathon Simmons. Starting his second game this postseason in place of Leonard, the second-year swingman from Houston scored 22 points, his most in any game.
Popovich said Simmons was possibly the only Spur who came ready to play. The only other player to score in double figures was Davis Bertans, who had 13 in garbage time.
“Jon was great,” Popovich said. “On both ends of the floor, he was intense, and he played to win, for sure … Jon was in a category by himself. Everybody else was in the other category.”
Aldridge, meanwhile, struggled throughout. He didn’t score his first basket until there was 4:55 left in the second quarter and finished with a meager eight points on 4 of 11 from the field.
“He can’t be timid,” Popovich said. “He turned down shots. He has to score.”
Leonard reinjured his ankle in the Game 1 when he stepped on Zaza Pachulia’s foot in a closeout play Popovich angrily labeled “dangerous” and “unsportsmanlike.” Pachulia now has injury problems of his own. He didn’t play in the second half after suffering a right heel contusion.