Down 22 in the first quarter, the Warriors roared back in San Antonio to down the Spurs 110-98 and improving their winning streak to nine games.
In a game that could ultimately end up deciding the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, the Warriors put themselves up 3.5 games in the standings.
“You can’t have better back-to-back road wins then what they’ve had right now,” ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy said on the broadcast.
Andre Iguodala spearheaded the comeback in the second quarter, David West scored a season-high 15 points, Steph Curry delivered a series of haymaker 3s in the third quarter and Klay Thompson slammed the door shut in the fourth against an opponent they Warriors will probably face in May for a trilogy date with Cleveland.
In the first 5 minutes of the game, the Spurs boat-raced out to a 15-0 lead — the Warriors started 1-for-11 from the field and committed 5 turnovers. That lead expanded to 29-7 midway through the quarter and at halftime San Antonio led the rebounding advantage 28-13. Gregg Popovich’s strategy against Steve Kerr has been to attack the glass and the Spurs used that to hold a first half lead.
The scratching and clawing from the Warriors started immediately in the second quarter on a Matt Barnes 3 — he started over Patrick McCaw. Golden State picked up the tempo and outscored San Antonio 37-24 in the quarter, cutting the halftime deficit to just 3 points. Iguodala scored 10 first half points. His aggressive pattern of play on offense since Kevin Durant went down has been the lifeblood of this team.
“We’ve got to get the first domino to fall and then — boom, boom boom,” Steve Kerr said in a huddle filmed by ESPN’s camera crew.
Those dominoes eventually fed into Curry’s hand in the third quarter. He hit 3 early triples and finished the quarter with his second dunk of the season. His 13 rapid-fire points in the third frazzled the Spurs so much, Kawhi Leonard marked Curry for parts of the fourth quarter. This was vintage Curry: 29 points, 11 assists (he’s been on a passing tear) and 4-for-8 from downtown, showing he wasn’t forcing it.
By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, it was Thompson’s turn. He rattled off 9 quick points to he begin the quarter and finished with 23, putting the Warriors in cruise control as Spurs fans headed for the exits. West even hit a 3-pointer at the end of the quarter, prompting laughter from a giddy Golden State bench.
Even more impressive? The Warriors kind of did this without Draymond Green, which is surprising because he usually is paramount in making big scoring runs. He was obviously active defensively, but Draymond had just 4 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 7 turnovers. He did take away Leonard, though, who went 7-for-20 from the field for just 19 points. Tony Parker played 24 minutes and didn’t score.
The Warriors will get a day of rest on Thursday and then will see James Harden and the Rockets back at Oracle Arena Friday night.
