San Antonio Spurs romp over Golden State Warriors, clinch West again – NBA Recap
The San Antonio Spurs posted a comfortable 120-99 victory over the Golden State Warriors here on Monday. The Spurs came into this game having won their last 13 against the Warriors, and made it 14 in a row in some style.
The win put the Spurs back on top of the Western Conference, displacing the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost to the Clippers. This was also their third win in a row and the Spurs seem to be gaining a lot of momentum heading into
the playoffs.
Gary Neal scored a team high 17 points as the Spurs big three all played limited minutes in the game. Six Spurs players had double figure points for the night. Nate Robinson led the Warriors in scoring, coming off the bench to
score 30 points for the night.
The Spurs dominated the 1st quarter, scoring 39 points while holding the Warriors to only 24. Golden State scored the first bucket of the game to take a 3-0 lead over the Spurs, but that would be their largest lead of
the night. The Spurs went on a 12-0 run to take a 16-5 lead early. They slowly stretched that lead to 15 at the end of the period, leading 39-24 going into the 2nd.
The Spurs continued their dominance throughout the 2nd quarter, leading by more than 10 points throughout and grabbing a 23 point lead, their biggest of the night, in the final minute before half time. They went into
the 2nd half leading 70-49. Spurs 70 points in the 1st half were the highest points allowed by Golden State to any team this season.
San Antonio led throughout the 3rd quarter as well and finished the period leading 96-72. Any offensive momentum by Golden State was easily squashed by the Spurs as they held on to a huge lead for most of the match.
The Warriors did try to stage a comeback by going on a 16-6 run in the beginning of the 4th quarter, but the Spurs lead was too big to chip away and the Warriors had no answer for the Spurs offense. San Antonio went on to win the match 120-99.
Tiago Splitter had 15 points on the night and added 8 rebounds for the Spurs. Tim Duncan had 13 points, Tony Parker had 8 and Manu Ginobili added 12. Nate Robinson dished 7 assists to go with his 30 points for the Warriors, while
Klay Thompson added 29 points and 8 rebounds. Dorell Wright had 17 points and 6 rebounds.
The Spurs shot 39.1% from the field, but managed to go to the foul line on 43 occasions, scoring on 36 of those. Golden State, in comparison, were 15 of 17. This gave the Spurs a 21 point advantage just in free throws, making up
for their poor shooting from the field. They also outrebounded the Warriors 55-47, including 19-14 in offensive rebounds. Golden State started with 4 rookies which proved to be a bad decision as they never took charge in the game and had to play catch up with
the Spurs throughout the entire 48 minutes of play.
“They are extremely well coached, which is obvious, by one of the best ever to do it. They have three guys that'll one day in the Hall of Fame. They're very efficient. They make you pay when you make mistakes. They're an outstanding
basketball team and they will be a very tough out come playoff time, because of those things" said Warriors head coach Mark Jackson after the game.
Tags: