Golden State: Game 1 loss is only 1 loss
SAN ANTONIO — Itwas a staggering response, considering the circumstances.
Less than an hour after his team had squandered a 16point lead in the final four minutes of regulation and then bungled a defensive assignment that allowed the Spurs to grab a 129-127, double-overtime victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson didn’t lower his head.
In fact, he looked directly into reporters’ eyes Monday night to make sure they knew he was speaking with an unbending confidence.
“This one really stings, but now we know we’re good enough to beat this team,” Thompson said. “The beautiful thing about this league is that it offers a chance at redemption. We can redeem ourselves Wednesday, and I think we’re as good — if not better than — this
team.”
The Warriors might not have known for sure that they could compete with second-seeded San Antonio before Game 1, but somewhere along the way of dominating the four-time champion on its home court, the Warriors started to believe.
And even after the Spurs mounted their historic rally and eventually clinched Game 1 on a wide-open Manu Ginobili three-pointer when two defenders mistakenly chased Tony Parker in the second overtime, the Warriors left the AT&T Center believing that oddsmakers were drastically wrong about this series.
“At some point, (head coach Mark Jackson) is going to go into a film session (Tuesday) and say, ‘Look, you guys had an opportunity to win this game in regulation, then after the first overtime and then certainly after the second over time,’ ” former NBA head coach and current ESPN analyst Kurt Rambis said Tuesday. “They should be oozing with confidence that they were beating one of the premier teams in the league that has an incredible amount of playoff experience, and they gave them everything they could possibly handle.
“There’s nothing for them to hang their heads about. They should be playing with an awful lot of confidence.”
The Warriors were up by as many as 18 points and led for all but 66 seconds of regulation — trailing at 3-2 and being tied at 0-0 and 106-106. The Warriors outshot the Spurs 51 percent to 43.8 and beat them by 10 on the boards and in paint scoring. Stephen Curry (who had 44 points) and Thompson combined to shoot 36-for-50. Parker and Ginobili went 16for-46.
The Warriors were still ahead by 16 points when Thompson fouled out with 3:57 remaining in the fourth quarter. During the final minutes of regulation, however, the Spurs dominated.
The Warriors inexplicably started slowing the tempo that they had forced San Antonio to play and became predictable in half-court sets. They took and missed bad shots and committed careless mistakes during a 1-for-8 shooting stretch with two turnovers.
On defense, the focus on the game plan seemed to evaporate as panic started to take hold. The Warriors were slow to retreat in transition and allowed the Spurs to hit six straight field-goal attempts to send the game into overtime.
The collapse followed the Warriors’ near collapse in Game 6 of their first-round clincher against Denver on Thursday. The Warriors led by 18 points with 8:02 remaining and by nine with 1:53 left. They ended up winning by four, and Denver twice had the chance to tie it in the final 12.9 seconds as the Warriors made a comedy of errors down the stretch.
“At some point, it’s something that we’re doing wrong that allows them that momentum and an opportunity to make it a game down the stretch,” Curry said. “We have to study the film again and adapt.
“We feel good about where we are, but if the situation comes up again, we don’t want to squander another lead. The sense of urgency right now is huge.”
That’s probably why the Warriors have found greatness in their most recent date with failure. Whenever the team’s urgency reaches the apex, the Warriors seem to respond with something that’s good, better or best.
After losing a two-point heartbreaker in the opener of the first-round series, the Warriors responded by winning three straight against Denver. They had losing streaks only seven times all season, skids of more than two games only three times and lost more than five in a row only once.
Brandon Rush was lost for the season in the regular season’s second game, Andrew Bogut was in and out of the lineup for the majority of the season and David Lee tore his right hip flexor in his first playoff game.
Each time, the Warriors have responded.
“I believe in my guys, and they’ve been through a whole lot,” Jackson said. “They can handle adversity. They can handle tough stretches. … We are not a team that’s going to panic.”
No, if this team was going to panic, it would have when San Antonio had a five-point lead with 1:01 remaining in the second overtime. Instead, Curry scored four straight and then found Kent Bazemore for a crossunder layup and a onepoint lead with 3.9 seconds remaining.
It was a sensational moment that left a few too many moments on the clock for the championship-tested Spurs. San Antonio made the gamewinner and extended its home winning streak against the Warriors to 30 games.
“They realize what took place,” Jackson said. “This was a golden opportunity. But with that being said, they feel the same way I feel. Some great things happened, and we put ourselves in position to win a ballgame. There’s no reason to hold heads down in our locker room, because we came here to win a game, and we’ve got Game 2 coming up.
“We saw enough to tell us that it could happen.”