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Golden State Warriors head back to California with home-court advantage after splitting the first two games with San Antonio Spurs 1-1. We’ll have live scores and coverage from 10.30pm AEST.
In many ways, this is a series of contrast.
One of the most experience coaches vs one of the least, big(ish) vs small, run-and-gun vs methodical and structured, and young vs old.
Let’s take a quick look back at the first two games before looking ahead to game three.
In game one, San Antonio came back from 16 down with 4:20 remaining to win by two in double overtime.
At the end of double overtime, Manu Ginobili launched a dumb and potentially game costing three with 45 seconds remaining.
He then proceeded to make the game winning three, redeeming himself, sending Popovich through a furious rollercoaster of emotions within the space of 47 seconds, and winning the game, all in one fell swoop.
Curry exploded for another huge quarter, with 22 points in the third and 44 points in the game. He also played all 58 minutes, a highly questionable decision by Mark Jackson, to put it politely.
In Game 2, the Warriors ended their 30 game losing streak in San Antonio. The last time they’d won in the Spurs’ building, Harrison Barnes was four years old.
Klay Thompson was the story of this game. He came up big with a career high 34 points, including a giddy 8-9 from three.
The Spurs gave up 11 three pointers in each of the first two games. It’s almost hard to blame the Spurs, seeing as Thompson and Curry need approximately 5 millimetres to get a shot off (and still somehow make it).
For Game 3, the series shifts to the Oracle Arena aka the ROARacle (no website pun intended).
Look to see if Golden State continues to exploit Tony Parker. Parker lacks size and has defensive limitations when guarding Golden State’s bigger and/or high scoring guards.
At times the Warriors were just giving the ball to whoever Parker was guarding and going to work.
However Gregg Popovich is the master at making adjustments, stay tuned for his counter move.
Golden State’s success has a lot to do with Harrison Barnes. He’s a guy who might do nothing one night, and then go for 20 points and 10 rebounds the next.
Despite an inconsistent season, he’s improved dramatically since being moved to power forward (15 points and 6 rebounds per game) in Golden State’s post David Lee injury/small ball system.
Another thing to keep an eye on is the battle of the boards. Despite being undersided, Golden State beat San Antonio on the boards in game one, grabbing ten more rebounds, and matched them in game two.
San Antonio will continue to struggle against the white hot shooting duo of Curry and Thompson, unless one of them is right off their game.
The Curry/Thompson induced perimeter paranoia for the Spurs may free up a little bit of space for Bogut, and if San Antonio’s defensive rotations aren’t near perfect, look for the guards to find him open down low, or vice versa as Bogut is a fantastic passer.
Golden State takes home court advantage to a whole new level. While it may have less of an effect on the veteran Spurs, it certainly has a huge effect on the Warriors. Those young guys just feed off of it like crazy.
With their running, dunking, high-volume shooting style, they’re a team built to play in front of that crowd.
This is going to be a lot of fun, join in the conversation below.
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