Heading into this NBA season, the Golden State Warriors were incredible favorites to win a title following their offseason acquisition of Kevin Durant. However, their opening night didn’t show that dominance, as they fell 129-100 to the San Antonio Spurs Tuesday.
Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs with 35 points and five rebounds, while LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 14 rebounds. San Antonio also got an excellent showing off the bench from Jonathan Simmons (20 points and four rebounds), and former Warrior David Lee chipped in six points and six rebounds. The two remaining members (following Tim Duncan’s offseason retirement) of San Antonio’s famed Big Three were solid, too, albeit playing smaller roles than we’ve often seen from them; Tony Parker had nine points, three rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes, while Manu Ginobili had 10 points and five rebounds in 20 minutes.
What was really impressive was what the Spurs did on the defensive side of the ball against the Warriors’ renowned offense, though. Durant had 27 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 61.1 per cent, but the rest of the team seemed a little off adjusting to their new addition. Draymond Green put up 18 points and 12 rebounds, but shot just 46.7 per cent from the field, while Klay Thompson put up 11 points and shot 38.5 per cent, while Steph Curry notched 26 points and three rebounds but hit just 50 per cent of his shots. Some of that may have been about the Warriors’ own adjustments now that they have Durant, but this was also about great defense from San Diego.
While one game doesn’t mean all that much in the grand scheme of things, this is a blow for those who figured Golden State would easily surpass their NBA-record 73-9 mark from last season. This also wasn’t a good initial indication for all of ESPN’s writers who predicted the Warriors as champions this year:
#RIPNBA pic.twitter.com/0GJwuT1vR9
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) October 25, 2016
The Warriors may well still get to the top of the mountain, but this game suggested there will be at least a few growing pains, not just a start-to-finish domination of the league. It also suggested that obituaries for the Spurs may have been premature. We’ll see where both teams go from here, but this was a great start for San Antonio, and not a good one for Golden State.
