NO CONTEST
OAKLAND — 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.
Stephen Curry notched 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. Rookie Patrick McCaw had 18 points and five assists off the bench shooting 6 for 8 as Golden State earned its second-most lopsided postseason victory ever 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.”
The 36-point Warriors’ win is second to a 39-point victory for Philadelphia at St. Louis on April 6, 1948.
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. “The truth always quote-un-quote sets you free. You can’t sugarcoat it or say ‘if we had just made a couple shots we’d have been right there. That’s pretty lame. So, call it like it is. We didn’t come to play. We felt sorry for ourselves. We need to get slapped and come back and play Game 3 and see who we are.”
Leonard re-injured his left ankle in Sunday’s 113-111 Game 1 loss after coming down on Zaza Pachulia’s foot. Popovich on Monday called out the Warriors starting center for the “dangerous” and “unsportsmanlike” closeout — which had Pachulia insisting he is not a dirty player, was only playing hard, and felt badly that the All-Star forward was injured. Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in San Antonio.