Warriors were staggered, but they aren’t staggering
Players say they can win, despite their inexperience
SAN ANTONIO — In the calm of an empty arena, every sound is pure. Nobody’s blaring rap music, racing onto the court with gymnastics mats or shouting through a P.A. microphone. The soundtrack to the Warriors’ Tuesday practice was that sweet convergence of hardwood, leather basketballs and shots caressing a nylon net. Stephen Curry sank one 25-footer after another, in mesmerizing rhythm, a master craftsman about to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
What could not be heard, during a half-hour media session, was the message from head coach Mark Jackson to his players, and how they privately reacted to a nightmare. Only hours had passed since a festive Game 1 turned into a crushing, double-overtime loss. What’s the proper response to something like that?
“A little somber,” said Klay Thompson when asked to describe the Warriors’ morning-after mood. “But only for a while. We’ll be fine, come
(Wednesday) night. We’re thinking about redemption.”
For 3½ quarters Monday night, the Warriors staged the most entertaining show of the NBA playoffs to date. They were fierce and defiant, assuredly superior to a San Antonio team trying to shake the rust of a week’s layoff. But when it was over, the Warriors were none of those things. They felt like a sprinter who had dusted a world-class field, only to take a pratfall just 5 yards short of the tape.
“Too young,” the experts claimed in the aftermath.
“So wrong,” say the Warriors. And it sounds as if they believe it.
“We deserve to be here, regardless of age and experience,” Curry said. “That was a game where if things had turned out a little different on the last couple possessions, we wouldn’t be answering those questions. We can’t ignore the fact that (the Spurs) have been on this stage every year, won championships. But we’re a good team. We’ve been playing at a high level for a long time. We made enough plays to win that game, and we feel very confident with where we’re at right now.”
Asked if it “gets old” hearing that playoff experience triumphs in the end, Thompson said, “It does. It’s really just basketball. Playoff experience is definitely valuable, but we tune that stuff out. We proved we’re capable of beating this team.”
There’s an awful lot of history supporting the fact that first-time playoff performers — such as Curry and so many of his teammates — will feel the sting of growing pains. That was the case with Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, just to scratch the surface, as well as the Spurs’ Tim Duncan. Some of them waited years before getting that first ring.
Not that the task is impossible. Titles came instantly to Bill Russell (1957 Celtics) and the Lakers’ Magic Johnson, who famously played center in the title-clinching Game 6 of the 1980 Finals against Philadelphia. On a decidedly different scale, but still worth mentioning, rookies Keith-Wilkes and Phil Smith were tremendously influential on the Warriors’ championship team of 1975.
“It’s not about old guys and young guys, it’s about execution,” Harrison Barnes said. “For most of the game, we did that, especially on the defensive end. We did a good job limiting what they were getting, and we shot the ball pretty well, too (61 percent through three quarters). I think in the overtimes, we just got a little bit away from our principles. We stick to our game, we’ll be all right.”
In the meantime, these are some of the issues to consider for Game 2:
Jackson didn’t play Andrew Bogut down the stretch Monday night for several reasons. Duncan felt ill and was out of the game, forcing the Warriors to match up with a small lineup. Bogut had played 37 hard minutes and, at times, looked completely spent. And Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich attacked Bogut’s free-throwing weakness with intentional fouls during an intriguing stage of the second half, Bogut making only two of his six shots from the line. That would have happened again if Bogut had stayed in the game.
Curry played all but four seconds of a 58-minute game, a crazy thing to consider, but he agreed with Jackson that it was no big deal. “Feels good today, no problem at all,” said Curry. “I’m a competitor — there won’t be many times I’m gonna ask to come out. I trained hard all summer to play these heavy minutes.” Curry did admit, though, that “to be honest, there were a couple of times in that first overtime when I tried to shoot a step-back and noticed a little heavy legs. But in the second overtime, I had better legs than I had at the end of regulation.”
Popovich scrambled his stop-Curry defensive schemes all night, having the most success with 6-foot-7 Kawhi Leonard. But Curry showed he could blow past any of them at will; the Spurs’ emphasis will be picking him up quicker with help. And if the game is close at the finish, they’ll try to seal off Curry with traps and double-teams and take their chances with Jarrett Jack handling the ball (quite the mixed bag of results Monday night, but Jack hit two huge crunchtime shots).
It won’t be long before the Spurs’ look takes on a radical change. Duncan should be feeling better by the weekend, if not Wednesday night, and 6-11 center Tiago Splitter (sprained ankle) will soon return to the starting lineup. That’s a pair of towering, excellent defenders at the rim, and a whole new set of strategical issues for Jackson to confront.
Between Denver’s Andre Miller and the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili, the Warriors were beaten by ancient NBA relics in the final seconds of the Game 1’s. In Denver, the Warriors responded with a Game 2 rout. Now they’re dealing with a San Antonio team that came alive when it mattered Monday night and, said Popovich, “finally woke up.” It sounds like an entirely different proposition.