Season 49, Game 69
San Antonio 87, Golden State 79
59-10, 2nd in the West

Round 2 goes to the Spurs.

It wasn’t as decisive as Round 1. And a Spurs’ victory Saturday night wasn’t as important as a Spurs’ loss would have been devastating. The Spurs had to win last night’s game, if for no other reason than to prove to themselves and the rest of the league that the Warriors are (mostly) mortal beings playing the same game as them.

No regular season game will really ever tell us anything overwhelmingly substantial about a potential playoff series. But Saturday night did provide some valuable intel, as the Spurs made several key adjustments.

“Relax and Slow Down”

The microphones caught Pop saying this in a second half timeout huddle. Indeed, the main objective of the game was to slow the pace down to help keep the Warriors contained.

To wit, the first game these two teams played back in January was played at a pace of around 105 possessions per 48 minutes, while Saturday’s game was played right around 90. Put another way, the first game was the fastest game the Spurs have played all season; Saturday’s game was the slowest game the Warriors have played all season. (h/t Sam Amick and Tom Haberstroh.)

Diving deeper into those numbers, the Spurs held the ball on offense almost 3 full seconds longer per possession Saturday night than during that first game back in January, while the Warriors had it nearly 1.5 seconds longer than in the first meeting.

The Spurs were clearly focused on slowing the pace down by holding the ball longer on offense and by making the Warriors work harder and cycle through their second and third options on defense. This was evident on offense as the Spurs were patient and worked through the post a whole lot.

The Warriors have a pesky defense that forces offenses to speed up and make uncharacteristic mistakes, a trap the Spurs fell into in their first meeting. While there were still too many turnovers Saturday, the team was a lot more cognizant of pace, ball control, floor balance, and possession. Even when the Spurs failed to score or turned the ball over, there were always guards and bigs hustling back, preventing the pace from quickening and the Warriors from getting easy points in transition.

On the defensive end, the Spurs were dead set to not let Curry beat them from the outside. They were frantically switching just about every action, even off the ball. This can be a recipe for disaster if players aren’t on the same page and assignments are blown, but the Spurs moved and switched with balletic grace and perfection last night. It was exciting to watch players trade off Curry (sometimes 2 or 3 different times on one cut) without missing a beat or lowing another player. The bigs (Aldridge, in particular) were good about getting out high and making Curry drive into the paint. The guards didn’t give him an inch of space.

Green, in particular, showed his defensive value. While Kawhi is the best perimeter defender in the league, Green is better suited to harassing those pesky PGs. He was magnificent guarding Curry in the game, and was able to register 2 blocks against him, 1 from behind the 3-point line. This is no easy task: it was only the second 3-pointer Curry has had blocked all season.

This also allowed Leonard to spend most of his time guarding Draymond Green. Ultimately, this is the match-up that is going to matter.

The Chess Match

The line-up match-ups between these two teams is fascinating. In particular because the Spurs offseason acquisitions of Aldridge and West in no small part are a direct response to the Warriors’ title last season. While the rest of the league is trying to emulate the Warriors, the Spurs are trying to beat them by finding a style that runs counter.

You can’t beat the Warriors by running and putting up 3s and playing small. Golden State is uniquely suited to do all of that with their personnel. If you play their game, you will lose. So you slow the game down. Then what? You try to play big and score where they let you: in the midrange.

The starting line-up for the Warriors Saturday night was altered due to injury. Bogut would usually start, making the Warriors first line-up more traditional. But how the Spurs countered is fascinating.

Of course we all knew Boris Diaw was going to be the key to everything, right? Much like those match-ups against the Heat in the Finals, Diaw was a critical piece to ‘solving’ the opposition and being able to match the other team and also present mismatches for them. As Mike Miller put it during the 2013 NBA Finals, Diaw allows the Spurs to be both big and small at the same time.

Starting both Aldridge and Diaw forced the Warriors to put Harrison Barnes on Diaw. We saw the mismatch on offense immediately – the Spurs went to Boris in the post early and often, and it resulted in 6 quick points for Boris, plus a wonderful lob pass to Aldridge for another 2.

The Warriors, conversely, weren’t able to really exploit Diaw on the other end. (We all know how good of a defensive player Boris can be when he was engaged. This is perhaps what is most frustrating about him, is that he can go long stretches of the regular season without serious engagement. But the team absolutely needs him in a series against the Warriors. Saturday we saw engaged Bobo, and he was one of the best players on the court.)

Back to the game… on defense, Diaw got matched up on either Barnes or Brandon Rush, neither of whom was able to really take advantage of their speed or outside shooting to punish Diaw.

But here’s where things get interesting: Kawhi was matched up with Draymond Green, the C of the Warriors starting line-up. This meant that Aldridge and Diaw were responsible for Barnes and Rush. There is opportunity for the Warriors to exploit this. For one game, at least, they were unable to.

The Kawhi-on-Draymond pairing is at the crux of this series. Both players are wholly unique and provide so much flexibility for each team. Both players are similar in size and skill. Both players are excellent two-way players. Draymond, however, has found his greatest value as an extreme small-ball center, while Leonard still does most of his damage as a forward.

We see what dangerous cross matches are presented when Leonard guards Green. So why is this match-up so important? Because of the Curry-Green pick and roll. The Warriors love to use this to get a big switched on to Curry and to get a small on to Green. Suddenly, the Warriors have huge mismatches at two significant positions.

So when the Spurs put Danny Green on Curry and Kawhi on Draymond, suddenly switching that pick and roll becomes a lot less advantageous for the Warriors. Kawhi can match up with Curry, and Danny can do his best on Draymond.

We didn’t see a whole lot of this last night, partially because the Warriors went away from it. If the Warriors aren’t using it as much, that’s a victory for the Spurs.

The final piece of the starting line-up match-ups is Tony Parker. Parker played his butt off on defense, but it’s no secret that Steph is a tough cover for him. When the Spurs put Green on Curry, this leaves Tony to usually guard Klay or Barnes, both big size mismatches for him. The Warriors like to take advantage of this by taking Parker and his cover down into the post and pushing him around (similar to their meeting in the 2013 playoffs).

Ultimately, even while this can be efficient for the Warriors, I think the Spurs will take this, because it slows down the Warriors offense (the ultimate end game for the Spurs), keeps the ball out of Curry’s hands, and limits the ball and player movement of the Warriors’ offense. You have to pick your poison. Compared to Curry 3-pointers, this is rather tame.

Father Time is Still Undefeated

One name missing from this recap: Tim Duncan. Duncan only played 8 minutes in the first half, producing very little in the box score. While Tim is still a great player, this series just might not be for him.

With one major ‘except’: Duncan can still match-up with Bogut and probably Anderson Varajeo. With Bogut not playing, Duncan didn’t have many minutes to be out there. When the two teams play again, expect Duncan’s minutes to mirror the minutes of those two.

It’s a testament to both Pop and Duncan that they have the fortitude and intelligence to see that the team’s best chance of winning might not include their franchise cornerstone and all-time great player. By not being on the court and still being a positive contributor, Duncan’s value might increase in this series rather than decrease.

Use Your Size

As noted earlier, the Spurs are specifically using size to counter the Warriors quickness. The embodiment of this is LaMarcus Aldridge, the Spurs biggest free agent signing ever.

In the first game, Aldridge had his worst game of the season, hands down, scoring only 5 points. On Saturday, he was a beast, working down in the post, executing the game plan, and using his size and shooting ability to get the Spurs a ton of great looks, on his way to a game-high 26 points (he was the only player on either team to crack 20 points).

We know his midrange shooting is crucial to beating the Warriors. But so is his strength and tenacity in the post. Draymond is an excellent post defender with his unusually strong base and long arms. LaMarcus needs to be fearless in attacking him, though, and helping to collapse the defense. On Saturday he showed what he can do. He didn’t shoot a great percentage, but even the misses helped the Spurs keep the Warriors slowed down.

The final piece of using team size is rebounding: when the Warriors go small, the Spurs have a chance to control the boards on both ends of the court. The Spurs outrebounded the Warriors 53-37 for the game, a substantial margin. Aldridge and Kawhi had 27 rebounds alone, 9 of which were offensive.

Offensive boards – something the Spurs do not emphasize at all – could be a crucial piece to beating the Warriors. It’s obviously a good way to get ‘cheap’ points and a good way to slow down the pace of the game. It can also be demoralizing. Late in the game, with the outcome still in the balance, the Spurs recovered a few key offensive rebounds that allowed them to secure the victory.

If Draymond Green is going to be the Warriors biggest player on the court, the Spurs must find a way to punish that decision.

Execution

Ultimately, you need to be almost perfect to beat the Warriors. The Spurs played well Saturday night, but they were far from perfect.

The Spurs second unit struggled against the Warriors second unit, something that also happened in the first meeting. The Spurs’ bench is usually a strength of theirs, and they need to find a way to take advantage of it against the Warriors. The Spurs had two long stretches without scoring, one at the end of the first quarter, one at the end of the third. This is the province of the bench. Both times, the Warriors clawed back into the game, erasing whatever cushion the Spurs had built.

Both teams had trouble scoring. Both teams are excellent defensive teams. If it’s going to devolve into a defensive battle, though, the Spurs have the edge. The Warriors scored only 8 points in the final 7 minutes of the game: two Rush 3-pointers and a Green 2-pointer. Only 2 of those points occurred in the final 3 minutes.

While the Spurs also struggled offensively during this stretch, I think the team will live with a defensive battle where points are scarce. The Spurs are the better defensive team.

When the game turns into an offensive battle, the Spurs are probably going to lose, even as good as their offense is. Both teams are fantastic on both ends of the court. However, the Spurs are a historically great defense, and the Warriors are a historically great offense. We know which type of game each team wants to play.

This is what makes this match-up so interesting and creates such good basketball. In many ways, these teams are so similar in their culture and approach to basketball in a large, big picture sense. But they arrive at these places by very different routes. The team that can impose its will on the other the most is likely going to win the game and, by extension, any potential series.

The Warriors clearly have the edge this season. As of Saturday night, however, the Spurs have thrown their hat in the ring. By showing a glimpse of how they could beat the Warriors, they have finally cast a small dollop of doubt on this season which was quickly becoming a fait accompli.

The Spurs just finished off a 5-game homestand in which they beat the four other best Western Conference teams in impressive fashion. After a sluggish interlude, the defense seems to be returning to early season form and the offense seems to be getting better each game. The team is poised for a strong finish to the regular season.

The Spurs travel to Charlotte to face the better-than-you-think Hornets on Monday night.

Go Spurs Go.