Warriors exploit Kawhi injury, rout Spurs by 36

OAKLAND, Calif. — Steve Kerr provided a strong message, just not from his usual spot on the bench: Play with urgency.

The Warriors did just that for their ailing coach, who was 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 had 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in three quarters and the Warriors trounced the short-handed Spurs, running away for a 136100 rout Tuesday night and 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 Mc- Caw had 18 points and five assists off the bench shooting 6-for-8 as Golden State earned its most lopsided victory of the playoffs to go to 10-0.

Jonathon Simmons, starting in Leonard’s place, 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-unquote 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. Popovich wasn’t about to guess whether Leonard would return in time, saying it could be Friday or even game day before that would be determined.

Pachulia left Tuesday’s game injured for a Warriors team already without key reserve forward Andre Iguodala, held out because of soreness in his left knee that limited him to 10 minutes in Game 1.

An X-ray on Pachulia’s bruised right heel was clear, but he was scheduled for an MRI exam on Wednesday.