Golden State 74, San Antonio 76
Right? I think that’s right. Certainly better than losing pretty. (Just ask Suns’ fans. Too soon?)
The game started off well enough, and the San Antonio offense was humming early, racking up 27 first quarter points. Over the next 3 quarters, they would only score 49 (with a 13 point quarter and a 12 point quarter to boot).
Luckily, on the other side of the ledger, The Warriors didn’t fare much better. Playing without Steph Curry, they only managed 74 points. And outside of a suddenly hot Toney Douglas, nobody did much of anything. The Spurs defense certainly looked very good at times, but it can be hard to know if this was just missed shots or something more. For tonight, I’m leaning slightly towards a little more, and if there is any gem to take away from Friday night’s game it’s that the defense has the ability to get where it needs to get. Not every team is going to shoot the lights out like Portland did a week ago, and the defense is working hard to get the other team in the places they want them to be.
And if we’re being really optimistic, we can use that first quarter as a sign that the offense is still there, even if only for 12 minutes.
I didn’t take many notes on the game, and I don’t think there’s reason to say much more. It’s early in the season, we’re in a stretch of 5 games in 7 nights, the opponent was missing a key player, and both teams played hard, if not efficient or pretty. A win is still a win, at least for accounting purposes come April and May. I’ll take it.
Up next: The Spurs play an odd matinee game in NYC against the Knicks on Sunday. Tip-off is 9am PST. Yes, 9am for us West Coasters. I’ll most likely be watching the replay later that night.
