Finally showing a little giddyap
Warriors guard Klay Thompson is known for perhaps the most flawless jump shot in NBA history, not his dunking ability.
So midway through the third quarter of Saturday night’s 122-105 win over the Spurs at Oracle Arena, when Thompson took a giant stride into the key and leaped by his defender for a thunderous one-handed slam, many of his teammates were dumbfounded. Players erupted off the bench, holding each other with their mouths agape. Guard Nick Young, seemingly in a daze, turned in a circle.
“I didn’t think he was going to take off, but he just took off,” center David West said. “It was great, man.”
It was the lasting image from a game-changing third quarter in which Golden State turned a three-point halftime lead into a 16-point cushion. Two nights after snapping out of their roughest four-game stretch of the season with a 121-103 rout of Dallas, the Warriors sought to show they’re over their midseason haze, riding a dominant second half to a convincing win over one of the NBA’s most respected franchises.
Along the way, the issues that have plagued Golden State in recent weeks — turnovers, technical fouls, porous defense — were non-factors.
A Warriors team that has owned one of the league’s worst defenses over the past month held San Antonio to 45.7 percent shooting, including 5-for-27 from three-point range. Golden State dished out 35 assists and tallied 16 turnovers. On a night when the Warriors shot 56.5 percent from the field, they had six players — their five starters and West — score in double digits.
The turnabout was welcome for a team that has admittedly been anxious to reach the All-Star break. Two nights after pulling away in the second half against the Mavericks, who were missing their former teammate, Harrison Barnes, the Warriors got closer to a complete performance, stringing together three solid quarters against a San Antonio club missing four rotation players, including Kawhi Leonard.
“It felt like we played three good quarters tonight, pretty much two through four,” said head coach Steve Kerr, who became the fastest coach in NBA history to reach 250 wins. “It was that old formula in terms of falling behind early and having to dig our way out of the hole a little bit.”
With Leonard limited to nine games this season by tendinopathy in his right quad, the Spurs still sit third in the Western Conference standings. With some of its top scorers sidelined at various points, San Antonio has remained stingy, entering Saturday with the league’s second-best defense.
The challenge of a formidable opponent, however, wasn’t enough for the Warriors to avoid another sluggish start. The Spurs feasted on open looks, ending the first quarter ahead 37-27 before Golden State tightened up defensively.
The Warriors knotted the game at 44-44 midway through the second quarter, ultimately taking a 58-55 edge into halftime. Early in the third quarter, after coming up hobbling as he ran downcourt, Stephen Curry was checked by a team trainer and re-entered the game. It was moments later that Thompson broke free for that one-handed dunk, sending his teammates into a frenzy.
“Well, I caught the ball, and I had a good pace,” Thompson said in his usual monotone. “I just went up and flushed it, and it felt very good.”
As a depleted San Antonio team began to tire, Golden State showcased its collective firepower, oscillating between layups, three-pointers, dunks and mid-range jumpers. Late in the third quarter, after Curry misfired on the outlet pass, JaVale McGee contorted his body mid-stride, corralled the ball and hammered home the alley-oop.
Kerr was free to pull his starters with little more than four minutes left. Now, with that recent 1-3 stretch a thing of the past, the Warriors host Phoenix on Monday and play at Portland on Wednesday before finally staring down what they’ve long awaited: the All-Star break.
“I like the upward trend from the past two games,” Kerr said. “It’d be great to have two great games defensively before we get to the break.”