NBA: 19-point comeback!

The Golden State Warriors (5-3) won 112:92 at San Antonio Spurs (4-4) despite a 19-point deficit in the first quarter. Steve Kerr’s team was once again able to rely on their good shooting. Spurs coach Popovich flew out of the hall.

The Spurs started like the fire brigade, the Starting Unit dominated the boards, didn’t lose any balls and hit their threes. The Warriors appeared surprised and were soon trailing 19 points. Only the small ball lineup ended the quarter with an 11:2 run, so the champion was back in the game (24:33). As a result, San Antonio didn’t seem to be so purposeful from a distance, which was also due to the Dubs’ attractive defence.

At the break there were only five points between the two teams, after a total of 26 minutes Golden State went through a three-way from Kevin Durant (24 points, 9/18 FG, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks) in the lead for the first time (60:57). KD remained hot. If he had discarded his first eight throws, he scored 15 points in the third quarter and initiated the final turnaround.

Previously, it was the Splash Brothers who had kept the champion in striking distance with their shooting. Stephen Curry scored 21 points (7/13 FG, 3/4 threesomes) and 8 rebounds, but had a shock second when Pau Gasol (11 points, 6 rebounds) fell to the Guard’s knees. The double MVP had to go into the cabin for treatment, but then it went on. Klay Thompson was the top scorer of the Warriors with a strong 27 points (11/17 FG, 5/8 threesomes).

At San Antonio, LaMarcus Aldridge was a big hit with 24 points (8/22 FG) and 10 rebounds. However, the Dubs had a much better grip on him after the break. LMA got support from Kyle Anderson, who showed a very efficient performance with 16 points (5/8 FG), 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

Just five minutes before the end Spurs-Coach Gregg Popovich echauffierte himself still too much about a whistle and picked up his two technical fouls, why he had to leave the hall prematurely. Four defeats in a row set it for San Antonio last in the season 2014/15.

San Antonio is the team of the league in the category offensive rebounds. This was also evident against the Warriors. Most of the time, two players of the hosts chased the bouncers. Kyle Anderson in particular was able to surprise the Kerr troop several times when he sneaked out of the corner and sneaked up to the ring. Durant slept in some situations and didn’t fight out. The Spurs had already collected 10 ricochets on the opponent’s board during the break. After the break, the Warriors were much more attentive and San Antonio decided the duel less clearly than feared (46:40 spurs).

Whoever thought that the Warriors could manage to create such overpayments in the fast-break was wound crooked. San Antonio was very disciplined, occupied the corners of the defence and gave Golden State hardly any easy points. After two quarters, the Warriors had only scored one more point in transition (6:5). After the change, however, the dubs managed to generate quick and easy points, mostly thanks to Green. Thus, with 24 points, they approached the season average (28.3).

One of the problems the Warriors had in their first season games was the turnovers. Even today, there were some lack of concentration in which the splitting was unnecessarily given. On the other hand, the Spurs were also very agile and had their hands on numerous passes, even though this did not always result in a steal. But the longer the game lasted, the more mistakes the Spurs made, especially the Second Unit. 11 of the 16 turnovers were due to the bankers. The Warriors had a total of only 14 ball losses.

The Spurs had only hit 33 percent of their threes before the match and only took 21 tries per game (29th place in the league). In the first quarter there were already 13 distance throws and even more important: 6 transformed triples. The Warriors did not contain this until time passed, but then it was properly contained. In the entire second half, the hosts only took six distance throws and were unsuccessful. The Dubs, on the other hand, were hot and hit exactly 50 percent of their distance throws. The odds even went down a bit at the end, because the last four minutes were only garbage time.

Spurs vs. Warriors: Click here for the BOXSCORE!

Draymond Green. The run of the Spurs ended when he entered the court again at the end of the first quarter. Mostly he defended against Gasol, but in some phases he also defended against Aldridge, who traditionally saw little sun against the defensive player of the year. Even after the change of the Energizers, when he blurred the spurs in Transition several times and brought easy points to the Dubs. At the end there were 16 strong points 7/8 FG, 5 rebounds and 7 assists in the boxing score.

Rudy Gay. As a scorer from the bank with very little influence. The Dubs gave the forward a lot of traps, in which Gay lost the overview several times and then made bad decisions. His throw did not fall (9 points, 3/10 FG) and he lost three times the ball. Defended against Durant as he ran hot and couldn’t contain the circles of the final MPs. At least with 4 offense rebounds and a highlight block against Rookie Jordan Bell.

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Steve Kerr was pissed at everyone in the first quarter. First he committed a technical foul because of a language that was not entirely free of teenagers, then he folded his team together in the time-out. Two minutes before the end of the first quarter, he brought his small-ball line-up from Curry, Shaun Livingston, Andre Igoudala, Durant and Green, which marked the turnaround after the 19-point gap. So the other bankers got fewer minutes and had almost no influence on the game.