Season 48, Game 55
Golden State 110, San Antonio 99
34-21, 7th in the West

This game was a loss months ago.

When you looked at the schedule before the season, a Clippers-Warriors back-to-back after the All-Star Break seemed like quite a task. Once the season began and the Warriors became the ’96 Bulls, Friday night’s game was almost a fait accompli. (This is why beating the Clippers became so important and was a doubly heartbreaking loss.)

So even though the Spurs lost, I thought they played decently for large stretches of the game, especially given the circumstances and the opponent. When a team goes 17-33 from 3-point range, you’re probably going to lose. Every time the Spurs even got mildly close, the Warriors would go on a quick 11-0 run in 2 minutes and just break the game wide open.

And the Warriors are really good. Perhaps great. By most metrics, they are the most impressive team in the NBA, and playing in Oakland might be the toughest venue to play in. (The Spurs are one of only two teams to win there this season.) A loss was always the most likely outcome.

Still, a few things stood out in both the big picture and this game in particular:

–A night after Tony Parker had his best game in a long time, he followed it up with a complete dud. Curry just worked him over on both ends of the court. As has been the theme for much of this season, one of the other PGs was a much better option, as Mills defended Curry much stronger than Parker did. In total, the Warriors starting back court scored 45 points and the Spurs’ scored 6. This is not good.

–One disturbing trend over the last several weeks is how mediocre the defense has been. A lot of this is at the point of attack, i.e., the defense from the PG position. Opposing guards are getting into the lane at will, breaking down our defense, moving it around, and forcing easy shots, fouls, or both. When looked at in this light, Parker’s recent play is even worse than you think, because it’s really bad on both ends.

There’s some chatter recently about sitting Parker for a little bit and letting Cory take over. In the short-term, this seems like a good idea, as the team would probably win more regular season games. But forget the Finals, this team isn’t even getting out of the first round without a healthy Parker. Perhaps his struggles are physical, in which case sitting him might make sense. But my hunch is it’s more mental, which is a huge problem.

–The French in general have been a problem all season. Boris has shown flashes, and looked great in this game. But his general lack of aggression and urgency has hurt the team all year. One could argue that this is a team-wide epidemic, that coming off the Finals’ win, there’s a general lack of urgency. Couple that with opposing teams wanting to give their best shot to the Spurs, plus having the team well-scouted, and it goes a long way to explaining why the Spurs just don’t get easy wins this season.

–Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the Warriors game was watching all that ball movement…from Golden State. It really drove home just how out of sorts our offense is this season. A lot of it is Parker and how much he means to keeping the machine well-oiled. But it also points back to the lack or urgency: there’s just less ball movement, less cutting off the ball, less team fluidity. Players are holding the ball longer, attempting to do it alone more, and in general just not buying into the system. Which is odd because that system got them all a title last season.

–Splitter continues to be mired in an unexplainable slump. He seems to have lost his confidence and his physicality. He is getting absolutely pushed around on both ends of the floor, which is not something that should be happening to a solidly built 7-foot center.

–Kawhi Leonard is officially in a funk. On both ends of the court.

I would say that the team has a chance to right the ship a bit in Utah, but we all know how that went.