Spurs spoil KD Warriors debut with 29-pt blowout
OAKLAND, California – Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs put on such a basketball show they sent the loyal Golden State fans to a rare early exit. What a strange sight at Oracle Arena for opening night and Kevin Durant’s long-awaited Warriors debut.
Leonard scored a career-high 35 points and the Spurs emphatically spoiled KD’s first game for Golden State in a 129-100 rout Tuesday that the Warriors could hardly believe had just happened.
“We got punched in the mouth,” Draymond Green said. “I don’t know if it was quite a bad thing for us.”
Durant had 27 points and 10 rebounds, but little looked in sync for MVP Stephen Curry and the reigning Western Conference champions in a forgettable first game – and quite a different one after the Warriors dominated at home and came out of the blocks last season with a record 24-0 start.
Leonard scored 31 points by the end of the third, LaMarcus Aldridge added 26 points and 14 rebounds and Gregg Popovich thoroughly outdid a couple of his close friends on the opposite bench in reigning NBA Coach of the Year Steve Kerr and top assistant Mike Brown.
Yes, San Antonio sent quite a message to the West.
“If there was an outcome I wasn’t expecting, it was this one,” San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili said. “A 29- point lead against a team like them? I truly didn’t expect it.”
Curry, last season’s first unanimous MVP, scored 26 points but was just 3 for 10 from 3-point range. Green had 18 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, while Klay Thompson was limited to 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting.
The star-studded Warriors were sloppy, committing 16 turnovers, and got outrebounded 55-35. They are clearly still finding themselves just as Kerr expected – though maybe not quite like this while.