On a night when David Lee returned to the court for the Golden State Warriors, Dorell Wright slipped in nine triple pointers and the Warriors shot better than 50 percent
from the floor wrapped with 12-for 18 from downtown as they snapped a five match losing streak to overwhelm the Minnesota Timberwolves 104-94 on Saturday.
On Tuesday night though, the Warriors will need all the inspiration they can get as they face an uphill task against San Antonio Spurs at the Oracle center.
Spurs are sitting at the top of the Western Conference and are the only team yet to lose an away encounter. This ties the best road record to start a season in franchise
history as it is the second time that the Spurs have opened up their season with a 7-0 mark on the road.
San Antonio is currently 13-1 in the month of November, which is the best November record in franchise history; their only loss coming against the Dallas Mavericks, which
saw the end of a twelve match winning streak.
The Spurs have been putting up points at a canter this season, averaging 107.2 per game, which currently is third in the league in addition to 23.1 assists per game.
Apart from that, the Spurs as a team rank in the top five in the NBA in several statistical categories. The Spurs rank first in three-point field goal percentage (.421)
and fourth in steals per game (8.69).
To make the matters worse for the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs hold an 88-50 all-time record against the Warriors. The Spurs have won eight in a row overall and have
rattled off 26 straight wins at home against the Warriors, having not lost in the Alamo City since February 97.
In the last year’s series the Spurs took all three games by at least 12 points and on March 19 last year, the Spurs notched season-highs of 147 points on 64.6% shooting
from the field.
While Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson led the way with 23 and 21 points for the series last time around, this season the Spurs offensive battery is being led by Manu
Ginobili who has been notching up 21.6 points per game. The shooting guard has tallied eleven 20-plus point performances in 16 games this season.
With the form and the statistics pitched against them, the Golden State Warriors, even with David Lee back, are up against it as they look for a spark to spur them on
against San Antonio and the one player who can provide them the much needed impetus is Monta Ellis.
Ellis who averaged 38.7 points in three games against the Spurs last season has been in supreme form this season and is one of the league leading scorers with 24.9 points
per game.
The 6 foot 3 inch guard who has been scoring at an average of 30 points at home this season is the one to look out for the Spurs as he can single handedly change a game
on its head in a matter of minutes.
The Golden State Warriors who started the season 6-2, also boast of players like Stephen Curry, Andris Biedrins and Dorell Wright and their offensive prowess cannot be
under-estimated.
The Warriors have excelled on the defensive end of the floor in terms of creating steals and forcing opponent turnovers, and they have converted those errors in to 20.9
points off turnovers, which is tops in the league. They however definitely need to shore up the gaps in their defense against the Spurs as they 26th overall in terms of the points allowed at 105.8.
Verdict
Although the odds are stacked against the Golden State Warriors as they head to head against the upbeat San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors have enough depth and talent in
their ranks to pull out a surprise win against the Spurs.
Tags: