Last year, the Warriors didn’t lose a game in the Western Conference playoffs. They went 12-0 in the West on the way to winning their second NBA Championship, sweeping the San Antonio Spurs along the way.
That will not be the case this year.
The Spurs played all game like their playoff lives depended on it, out-defensed and out-shot the Warriors Sunday afternoon on their way to a 103-90 Game 4 win.
Everything that had to go right for the Spurs to win did in the first half.
Turnovers, the achilles heel of the Warriors (at least according to Steve Kerr), plagued the defending champs early and often. The Spurs brought the defensive intensity one would expect from a team facing elimination, but many of the Warriors turnovers were self-inflicted mistakes.
Durant was responsible for a couple lazy turnovers early. JaVale McGee practically handed the ball to Rudy Gay under the basket after a rebound for an easy putback. The Warriors racked up 5 turnovers in a bit over 4 minutes. It took the Spurs more than a quarter to commit one of their own.
The Spurs also needed either Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson to cool off. Each of the two entered the game averaging over 25 points per game in the series. Thompson struggled with his shot all game, only finishing with 12. He missed a few wide-open shots, including blowing a lay-up in the second quarter.
San Antonio also, to put it simply, needed to hit more shots than had been leading into Game 4. The Spurs got decent offense from LaMarcus Aldridge in the series, but the Spurs had little help elsewhere.
Things changed Saturday. Dejounte Murray hit three 3-pointers in the first half after not taking that many in a game all year. LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay also played well, and the Spurs had their highest-scoring quarter of the series in the 1st when they hung 30 on the Warriors defense. They put the grips on the Warriors for the rest of the second half and took a 56-44 lead into the break.
As expected, the Warriors had a plus third quarter. The second unit came into the game and started to claw their way back into it. David West got a technical foul jumping up off the bench and running to the bike after what he thought was a bad call, but came in and knocked down a couple jumpers.
Shaun Livingston played well also. The Peoria, Illinois native finished 5-of-7 from the field, finishing with 10 points.
After a quiet first half, Durant started to play loud. By knocking down mid-rangers, getting to the line and hitting some 3-pointers Durant pulled the Warriors back within 4 points at one point in the 4th quarter.
But San Antonio got a few timely buckets near the end of the game by Aldridge and Manu Ginobli – possibly playing in the final game of his career – and they staved off the late Golden State rally.
The Warriors lost the game despite out-rebounding the Spurs 61-34, but 16 turnovers (compared to only 8 for the Spurs) ended up dooming Golden State.
Up next: Game 5 on Tuesday afternoon at Oracle Arena in Oakland.