Bogut likely out.
DALLAS — The Warriors expect to be without starting center Andrew Bogut on Saturday in San Antonio, and they may decide to sit others in the marquee matchup against the Spurs.
“If I had any guts at all, I’d sit everybody,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said after Friday’s win over the Mavericks. “It’s like our sixth game in nine nights. It’s on national TV. If I was ( Gregg) Pop( ovich), I’d sit everybody, but I don’t have that kind of courage.
“I’m in my second year. I can’t flip the bird to the league, like Pop does every once in a while. That’s my guy, but I’m not in that class.”
The Warriors play the Spurs three times in a 23- day span. In both games at San Antonio, the Warriors will be playing the second game of a back- to- back set. When the Spurs play in Oakland, they will be coming off a rest day.
The Warriors are already without Festus Ezeli ( knee), Andre Iguodala ( ankle) and Kevon Looney ( hip), who stayed in Oakland to rehab, but that hasn’t taken away from the anticipation of Saturday’s game between the league’s best teams.
The teams have clinched their respective divisions and appear to be on a collision course to meet in the Western Conference finals as they wrap up two of the NBA’s top three regular seasons ever.
Neither team has dropped consecutive games. Neither team has lost at home.
“This is the matchup that we’ve all been looking for,” Warriors forward Harrison Barnes said. “They’re one of the best defensive teams in the league and one of the teams that we could possibly see in the playoffs. We’re excited. We haven’t won there in a while, so that’s something that’s on our mind.”
“Home dominance is always a hallmark of a great team, but normally that means 35- 6,” Kerr said. “The fact that both teams are undefeated is shocking.”
The Warriors haven’t won a regular- season game in San Antonio since Feb. 14, 1997 — a 32- game skid that ranks behind only the Kings’ 43- game road losing streak to the Lakers from 1975- 92. The Warriors did win Game 2 of the 2013 Western Conference semifinals in the Alamo City after coughing up Game 1 there.
The last time the Warriors won a regular- season game in San Antonio, Kerr was on his way to winning his second championship as a player with the Chicago Bulls, and Warriors rookie Looney had been 1 for a week.
Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson was asked what reporters should expect from him in San Antonio.
“You can expect to see 20 three- pointers, instead of 10,” said Thompson, who scored 39 points on 10- of- 15 three- point shooting Friday. “I’m kidding. It’s going to be a great game.
“A game like this deserves the hype. Any time a game like this in the regular season gets this much hype, it’s great for us, it’s great for the league, and it’s going to be a great test for us.”