Warriors fight back to beat Spurs.
Warriors rally from 22 down to beat Spurs, boost lead for top seed in the West
SAN ANTONIO — A 22point Spurs lead disappeared quickly Wednesday. The Warriors, in danger of getting run out of the building early, seesawed all the way back in front late in the third quarter.
And to punctuate that massive swing — eventually ending in a 110-98 Warrior win — they victimized an old friend: David Lee, a former Warrior All-Star turned Spurs reserve. He went up for a needed late third quarter layup, but was stripped by Andre Iguodala, who pushed it upcourt to Steph Curry for a runout dunk — his second slam of the season — complete with a strut.
And if that wasn’t enough, seconds later, Lee went up for a retaliation dunk on the other end, but Draymond Green, the Warrior who ripped away Lee’s
starting spot three years back and helped jump-start this franchise renaissance, met his former teammate at the summit, swatted away his dunk and then celebrated in his face.
“I loved it,” Green said. “And I know D-Lee was pissed off, so I was happy about that one.”
The Warriors led by seven at the time and controlled the fourth quarter, finishing off a ninth straight win, sweeping a tough Texas back-to-back and grabbing a stranglehold on the Western Conference. The Warriors are now up 31⁄2 games on the Spurs for the conference’s top seed with seven games to play, six of those being at Oracle Arena.
“It’s a big deal,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re obviously not there yet, but we’re in a great position and if we’re able to, we’ll monitor minutes and maybe give a guy a night off to prepare for the playoffs.”
This result was quite a change from where it felt heading in the first quarter. The Spurs ripped off the game’s first 15 points and sprinted out to a commanding 29-7 lead. They were threatening to run the Warriors out of the building with a season-series sweep to pull within one in the loss column.
Golden State’s had plenty of first quarter problems. The most massive: Rebounding. San Antonio brutalized them 28-13 on the glass in the first half, grabbing 11 offensive rebounds and putting in 16 second chance points. That interior size advantage is quite possibly the biggest concern the Warriors would have against the Spurs in a playoff series. San Antonio mashed them for 21 offensive rebounds in a blowout win in Oracle on opening night.
But the Warriors defense shored up the rebounding issues after the first quarter and continued to play sturdy half-court defense — a theme in this win streak — holding San Antonio to 41 percent shooting.
“I told somebody on the bench — I think we were down 22 — I said, ‘Yo, as crazy as this may sound, they’re up 22 and I don’t think they’re dominating us,’ ” Green said. “It’s missed layups, turnover here, missed offensive rebound. They blitzed us, but it wasn’t where I felt we couldn’t get control of the game back.”
The turnaround began late in the first quarter, when Iguodala continued his torrid month with a seven-point outburst to bring the Warriors within 17. He hit a fadeaway at the quarter buzzer. Then to start the second, Matt Barnes and Ian Clark nailed a pair of 3s to build the momentum.
Klay Thompson and Curry remained hot from deep — a combined 8 of 17 from 3 — and the Warriors climbed back to within 5754 at halftime.
Then Golden State took over the third quarter, swarming MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard (7-of-20 shooting, 0 of 5 from 3), holding an aging Tony Parker scoreless in 24 minutes and exposing the defensive problems presented by the Spurs insistence on playing two bigs against Golden State’s smaller lineups.
Golden State continually shredded the slow-footed Pau Gasol and Lee in space. Lee was a game-worst minus-17 in his 16 minutes.
This offseason, the Spurs signed Gasol and Lee, in part, to replace David West, who departed for the Warriors. The Spurs crowd booed West upon entry on Wednesday night. He showed them what they are missing.
West was phenomenal defensively and perhaps had his best game as a Warrior on the offensive end. West finished with 15 points, four rebounds and five assists (continually pinpointing passes to cutters). He was a plus-24 in his 22 minutes, punctuated by a game-sealing corner 3-pointer with 52 seconds left (his third 3 of the season), putting the Warriors up 14.
“The story of the game,” Kerr said. “Coming back here, getting booed I noticed. But he was inspired and played a great fourth quarter. Fun to watch.”
Kevin Durant got his n official four-week re-evaluation on Wednesday morning. The Warriors said his left knee has had no setbacks and he will continue to ramp up activity — “the plan is to intensify his level of movement over the next several days, which will include more explosive cutting and lateral maneuvers” — but Durant will be out at least another week, with another scheduled reevaluation in 7-10 days.