Season 50, Game 01
San Antonio 129, Golden State 100
1-0
Not a bad way to start the season.
I was smugly confident going into Tuesday’s season opener against the Warriors. Not a single person expected the Spurs to win. The prevailing thinking was: “How close can the Spurs keep it?” The thought just kept nagging at me, though, that it would be oddly poetic for the Spurs to waltz into the lair of the new NBA super villains on opening night and beat them in a way that never happened last season.
I didn’t expect such a resounding beatdown. The Spurs just worked the Warriors in every facet of the game. They out-rebounded them, 55-35, including 21 offensive rebounds to the Warriors 8. They made 5 more 3s on 9 fewer attempts. The bench outscored the Warriors’ bench 54-16. They made 10 more free throws on 8 more attempts.The Spurs won every quarter.
Two things stood out in particular:
- The Spurs ended every quarter (that mattered) with a little run. They had a 13-2 spurt at the end of the 1st; a 12-2 run to end the half; and closed the 3rd with a modest 10-6 run, putting the game firmly out of reach. That’s a net gain of 25 points in a 29-point victory. Seems significant.
- The Spurs were able to withstand every offensive spurt from the Warriors. We’ve become accustomed over the last two seasons to seeing the Warriors put up points in a hurry. You never know when the avalanche is coming, but the threat is always there, and the game can be out of reach in a matter of moments. The Warriors had a few of these runs in the opener, but the Spurs were able to answer each one.
It’s how the Spurs did these two things that was illuminating. They used offense – not defense – to win this game.
Last year’s Spurs team was one of the best defensive teams ever. With Duncan anchoring the back and Leonard roaming up front, the Spurs were almost impossible to score on. But they had their own offensive issues. While they were able to hold the Warriors mostly in check, they just could not score enough to reasonably threaten them last season.
With the departure of Duncan, it seems clear that the team is looking to improve on offense while hoping the defense can be ‘good enough,’ by the Spurs’ lofty standards. Most of the off-season moves brought in plus offensive players that are either bad or neutral on defense.
Can the Spurs’ coaching staff and trusted scheme make players like Gasol and David Lee play adequate defense? We’ll find out. But we can know this: the offense will be potent this season.
It’s opening night against a team that is an outlier in many ways, so we don’t want to read too much into any one player’s game. Much like Duncan was last season, this Warriors team is a bad match-up for players like Parker and Gasol, both of whom I expect to have productive seasons as savvy veterans. Players like Lee and Dedmon are so new to the system, I want to give them time to play a few games before I pass any judgment. And most of the rest of the new players only saw burn in garbage time.
Let’s turn our focus to 3 players: Kawhi, LaMarcus, and (you guessed it) Jonathon Simmons.
First LaMarcus. Rumblings and rumors aside, I have high hopes for him this season. It’s his second year with the team, he seems much more comfortable in the system, and he ended last season on such a high, the hope is he can build on that. We know LaMarcus is moody and can be a difficult personality, but he has great talent. Here’s the key for him: can he accept his role as a really great 2nd player? He’s not quite good enough to be ‘the man’ on a team, but he’s better than most ‘second bananas’ in the league. Will he allow this to be Kawhi’s team? Can he keep putting up 26-14 and be happy not being the primary offensive threat? Will he work to be a more consistently great defender?
Now Kawhi. If Kawhi can make yet another leap in his game, the Spurs will easily remain at the top of the league and even be a dark-horse Finals contender. He can be that good. I loved what I saw in the opener. He was aggressive attacking the rim. He is starting to get the respect of superstars, getting tons of foul calls (something that was not the case last season). Pop is more and more comfortable putting the ball in his hands and letting him run the offense (which has the added effect of the team relying less on Parker, allowing him to age gracefully into whatever his role will be), and his handle and decision-making looks better. He ran one nasty pick and roll with Aldridge in which he threaded a bounce pass to LMA perfectly for an easy dunk. Can he keep upping his offensive workload while maintaining the best individual defense in the league? Can he be the main offensive weapon all season, including the playoffs?
Finally, let’s talk about Simmons. I think this was the kind of game all close watchers of the Spurs knew he had in him. He has athleticism, size, and a knack for making great plays. The hope was he could be more consistent and confident and help to anchor the bench with Manu and Patty.
If Tuesday’s game is any indication, we’ve got our next great bench player here. He was magnificent in every facet of the game. The Spurs had a historically great bench last season, using it to put so many games out of reach. One of the big questions coming into this season was how well the bench would play with so many key losses. Simmons (and Anderson) taking big leaps could give us an even more potent bench.
It’s just one game, but damn, it feels good to have our Spurs back.
The Spurs christen the Kings’ new arena in Sacramento on Thursday night.
Go Spurs Go.
