Category: Golden State Warriors

Warriors fend off Spurs’ comeback to win 99-91 in Game 5 and advance to Western Conference Semifinals

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Pearl Allison Lo

In the first game of the series in which neither the Golden State Warriors or the San Antonio Spurs scored 100 points, the Warriors prevailed in Game 5 with a 99-91 win at Oracle Arena on Tuesday night.

Golden State won the series 4-1 and led this contest ever since 10:49 left in the second. Their lead went up as much at 16 points. However, San Antonio got to within a layup’s distance with 57.2 seconds remaining in the game.

After a lackluster first half, the Spurs’ LaMarcus Aldridge scored 25 of his 30 points in the second half. His Warriors’ counterpart, Kevin Durant, scored 17 of his 25 in the same time span.

After the 91-93 score, Durant replied with a two-point field goal after the timeout. Manu Ginobili lost the ball out of bounds and fouled Durant. Durant made his free throws and after another timeout, missed three straight beyond the arc attempts. Draymond Green got the rebound, Ginobili fouled him and the game ended with Green making free throws.

Aldridge also had 12 rebounds, Patty Mills scored 18 with four three-pointers, Klay Thompson scored 24 points, Green had a double-double of 17 points and 19 rebounds and Green and Ginobili each had a game-high seven assists.

The Warriors began with a 9-0 run until Aldridge got the Spurs their first points with 8:33 left. This was the start of an 8-0 run for San Antonio. Aldridge also had the first of the period’s three ties when he scored with 3:45 left. Ginobili gave San Antonio their only lead of the first with 1:58 left.

The Spurs had only one lead in the second also, with Rudy Gay making the first shot of the quarter. Starting with 8:54 left, San Antonio missed seven straight attempts while losing the ball twice in three minutes. Meanwhile, Thompson scored nine of his 11 points in the quarter, making nine of the team’s first 11 points. David West scored the other basket and its assist going to Thompson.

Thompson led with 17 after the first half, the only one in double-digits. Tied behind him was Mills and Gay with nine points apiece. From the field, the Spurs shot 31.1 % versus 47.6% for Golden State. The Warriors led 10-0 in fast break points.

The pace went up for both teams in the third. Golden State added to their fast break advantage with nine more points.

Next: The Western Conference Semifinals with the #2 seeded Golden State facing former Coach Alvin Gentry and the #6 seeded New Orleans Pelicans.

Golden State Warriors podcast with David Zizmor: KGO ABC 7 sports anchor Mike Shumann pulled from Warriors coverage for stealing a Warriors jacket

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Photo credit KGO ABC 7 San Francisco: Right now KGO 7 sports anchor Mike Shumann isn’t ready to be asked anything after being videoed taking Warriors director of security Ralph Walker’s jacket before game four on Sunday in San Antonio

On the Golden State Warriors podcast with David:

KGO ABC 7’s sports anchor Mike Schumann has been pulled from covering the Golden State Warriors playoff assignment. During a practice session, a video showed Schumann taking a jacket from a seat before Sunday’s Game 4 in San Antonio. Schumann apparently picked the wrong person to steal from Ralph Walker, who is Stephen Curry’s personal security guard and also is the team’s security director knows a few things about finding stolen property.

Walker, who was missing the jacket, requested to see who might have taken the jacket from at the AT&T Center Arena and a security video showed a man with a red jacket on walking up to the seat taking the jacket and walking away. Identified as Schumann, who has been a Channel 7 anchor since he retired from the San Francisco 49ers in the 80s. Channel 7 said they take this matter seriously and have pulled Schumann from the assignment. The statement basically said the station is embarrassed by the incident.

The Warriors who couldn’t get it done in Game 4 on Sunday will take a look at what the difference was from the first three games and the Game 4 loss. The Warriors take on the Spurs for Game 5 at Oracle Arena tonight to try and close out this first round of the playoffs.

Head coach Steve Kerr said that Stephen Curry won’t be available until this series is over. The ankle is under treatment and doctor’s care. The Warriors want to make sure that Curry is fully prepared enough to compete at the highest level on the fragile ankle that’s given Curry past problems.

Catch David with all the Warriors podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

NBA Playoffs: New Orleans will be tough in potential second round series with Golden State

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Photo credit: @NBAonSP

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
SRS Contributor

The Spurs shouldn’t be returning to Oakland for a Game 5 on Tuesday.

Golden State, leading 3-0 in their first-round series against San Antonio and looking unbeatable in the first three games, now has to play one more game after dropping Game 4 with a 103-90 rout Sunday afternoon in the Alamo City.

The Warriors now lead the best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series, 3-1.

Instead of sweeping the seventh-seeded Spurs, who are dealing with a myriad of issues from the recent death of Erin Popovich, the late wife of San Antonio’s head coach Gregg Popovich, to the ongoing Kawhi Leonard saga, Golden State allowed itself to cut 48 hours off its schedule to prepare for a New Orleans Pelicans team that will give the Warriors all it can handle in the second round.

The sixth-seeded Pelicans showed no remorse against the third-seeded Portland Trail Blazers in their first-round series. Many prognosticators, including myself, thought this could be a series that would go six or seven games with the Trail Blazers likely prevailing.

And why would you not pick Portland over New Orleans?

The Trail Blazers arguably have one of the NBA’s best backcourt duos in point guard Damian Lillard and shooting guard CJ McCollum to carry them over unheralded combination of  point guard Rajon Rondo and Jrue Holiday.

Oh yeah, and the Pelicans were without center Demarcus Cousins, who tore his Achilles tendon and was lost for the season on Jan. 26. Before the injury, Cousins was averaging 25.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game and along with power forward Anthony Davis (28 ppg and 11 rpg during the regular season), were on pace to become the first set of teammates in NBA history to average at least 25 points and 10 rebounds per game according to ESPN Stats and Information.

Boy were we wrong.

Now, The Pelicans have all of their detractors eating crow with a side of “we told you so.” Portland (49-33) did finished the regular season with one more win than New Orleans (48-34), but it were the Trail Blazers that were over-matched.

New Orleans capped off the franchise’s first sweep of an NBA playoff series with 131-123 victory in Game 4 over Portland on Saturday night in front a rabid and sold out home crowd at the Smoothie King Center. The 131 points scored by New Orleans are a franchise record for a playoff game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

In the clinching game, it was the combination Davis and shooting guard Jrue Holiday that punched the Pelicans’ ticket into the second-round for the first time since 2008 with Davis pouring in 47 points with 11 rebounds. Holiday finished with 41 points and eight assists against the Trail Blazers who had no answer for either guy in this series.

Both Davis and Holiday surpassed current Warriors’ power forward David West’s franchise record 38 points (also occurring in 2008 according to Elias Sports Bureau) with their scoring barrage.

The 6-foot-10, 253-pound Davis imposed his will against Portland bigs, most notably against center Jusuf Nurkic, averaging 33 points and 12 rebounds in four games against the Trail Blazers this postseason. There’s no doubt that Davis will be a force against Golden State’s stable of bigs, centers Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee and Kevon Looney.

Throw in the aforementioned Rondo, a 11-year, defensive, pass-first veteran with a championship ring from 2007 as the starting point guard for the Paul Pierce-Ray Allen-Kevin Garnett Boston Celtics, the Pelicans have some pieces in place to make the inevitable second-round matchup with Golden State interesting.

Rondo, or #PlayoffRondo, is the unquestioned floor general for the Pelicans. In the four games against the Trail Blazers, Rondo recorded 17, 9, 11 and 16 assists respectively. For the series, Rondo averaged 11.2 points and 13.2 assists per game and was glued at Lillard’s hip the entire time, helping New Orleans limit Lillard to 35.2 percent shooting in the series.

Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry, who also has a championship ring as an assistant coach with the Warriors in 2015 before leaving for New Orleans, knows some of the offensive and defensive tendencies of shooting guard Klay Thompson and power forward Draymond Green.

Even with two-time MVP Stephan Curry still not ready to play in the playoffs for the Warriors, Golden State is still the better team than the Pelicans by far and can win the series without him since the Warriors still have another former MVP in Kevin Durant.

In the four regular season matchups between New Orleans and Golden State, the Warriors won the first three matchups: 128-120 on Oct. 20 at New Orleans, 110-95 on Nov. 25 in Oakland and 125-115 on Dec. 4, while the Pelicans got the best of the Warriors 126-120 on Apr. 7 in Oakland.

Spurs shut down the Warrior offense en route to a 103-90 win to avoid sweep

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

The San Antonio Spurs, without head coach Gregg Popovich, found a way to slow down the Warrior offense and beat the Warriors 103-90 Sunday afternoon in the AT&T Center.

The Spurs were coached by assistant coach Ettore Messina for the second game in a row. Messina, a former coach in the Italian League, rallied his team as their defense stifled the Warrior offense. Messina also coached the 40-year old veteran, Manu Ginobili, when he was a very young player starting his career in Italy. Ginobili, who probably played his last home game as a Spur, scored 10 points of his 16 points in the fourth quarter. He made both 3-point attempts and did not turn the ball over in his six minutes of action in the last quarter.

The Spurs won the first half 56-42. They were led by their star center LaMarcus Aldridge. The Warriors, as is their custom, won the third quarter 29-21 to cut the lead to six 77-72. The Warriors went on a 13-5 run to pull within 2 88-86 but the Spurs refused to wilt, and the Warriors were toast.

Game Notes and Stats: The Warriors’ Draymond Green had this to say about the loss: “You have got to give them a lot of credit…They came out and they probably played with more intensity this game than they did the entire series.”

The Warriors were led by Kevin Durant’s 34 points and 13 rebounds. Klay Thompson had 12 and Shaun Livingston added 10. Draymond Green scored nine to go along with nine assists and 18 rebounds. None of the other Warriors were in double figures.

The Dubs were held to 34.9% from the floor. They mad just seven three-point shots in 28 attempts.

The most telling stat showed that Golden State did not handle the ball well at all as they turned the ball over 18 times and if they make more than 16 turnovers in a game, they usually end up on the short end of the score.

LaMarcus Aldridge led the Spurs with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Ginobili finished with 16. Rudy Gay added 14, Dejounte Murray 12, and Kyle Anderson finished with 10.

Up Next: Game 5 of the series will be played Tuesday night at Oracle Arena in Oakland. Game time will be at 7:30 pm PT.

Warriors take 3-0 series lead with 110-97 rout of Spurs

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Photo credit: @ESPN

By: Eric He

Behind lockdown defense and 26 points from Kevin Durant, the Warriors beat the Spurs 110-97 on Thursday night to take a 3-0 advantage in the best-of-seven series. They are one win away from a sweep and a trip to the second round.

The Warriors used a stellar third quarter to take control of the game, making a run out of halftime to go up by double digits and take a 12-point lead into the fourth. Klay Thompson’s shooting helped close the deal. His deep three off an offensive rebound kept the Warriors ahead by double digits, and he finished with 19 points.

The two teams were fairly even in the first half as both sides struggled offensively. The Warriors could not buy a 3-pointer early, but came alive from distance in these second half.

Meanwhile, the Warriors held the Spurs to just 43 percent shooting and 21 percent from 3-point range. They clamped down on LaMarcus Aldridge and the Kawhi Leonard-less Spurs, who did not have the firepower to match the Warriors’ second half spurt.

They held their breaths late when both Durant and Shaun Livingston rolled their ankles, but both were able to walk away without assistance.Game 4 will be Sunday in San Antonio as the Warriors eye a sweep.

Golden State Warriors podcast with David Zizmor: Thompson and Durant are keys to Warriors’ success through first two games

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Photo credit: @NBCWarriors

On the Warriors podcast with David:

#1 The Warriors, after having that regular season-ending wrinkle, you couldn’t recognize them now. Was this a ploy created by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to sit his stars down at the end of the regular and give the San Antonio Spurs the element of surprise for the playoffs?

#2 Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson have been a force in these first two games with Durant scoring 32 points and Thompson scoring 31. They make playing against the Spurs like cutting through butter.

David Zizmor does the Golden State Warriors podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Durant, Thompson lead Warriors past Spurs 116-101 for 2-0 series lead

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Photo credit: @SportingGreenSF

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Monday, April 16, 2018

For the second straight game in their NBA West opening round playoff series, the Golden State Warriors prevailed over the visiting San Antonio Spurs without Stephen Curry, as the Warriors enjoyed a 116-101 win Monday at Oracle Arena.

Golden State has a 2-0 lead in the series, which moves to San Antonio on Thursday for Game 3 at 6:30 pm PT.

Kevin Durant led the Warriors with 32 points, followed by 31 points and five assists from Klay Thompson on 12-of-20 field goal shooting. Andre Iguodala netted 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and JaVale McGee added 10 points and seven rebounds.

David West, who left early in the fourth quarter with a left ankle sprain, wound up with 10 points and four boards in 14 minutes for the Warriors.

Curry is expected to miss the remainder of the series due to a sprained left knee.

LaMarcus Aldridge led San Antonio with 34 points and 12 rebounds, and Rudy Gay, who was inserted into the Spurs’ starting lineup, scored 12 points and had three steals. Aldridge was 12-of-12 at the free throw line.

After the Spurs took a 53-47 lead into halftime, Durant and Thompson sparked a decisive 19-5 third-quarter run.

The Spurs hit 41 percent from the floor (35-of-85). Golden State had a 39-35 rebounding edge.

Golden State shows no mercy, jumps all over San Antonio in Game 1

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@warriors photo: Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant (left) and Draymond Green (right) address the media at press conference after their game one win at Oracle Arena on Saturday

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
SRS Contributor

OAKLAND — It almost felt like forever since we’ve seen the Warriors dominate a basketball game from start to finish.

Until Saturday afternoon.

Already without All-Star point guard and two-time MVP Stephan Curry, the defending NBA Champions started their title defense with a 113-92 victory over the visiting San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

The win extends Golden State’s win streak to six games in postseason openers, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

Both Kevin Durant and Draymond Green flirted with triple-doubles, as Durant finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists; while Green chipped in with 12 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists.

Klay Thompson finished with a game-high 27 points. San Antonio had no answer for Thompson, especially coming off of hard screens from Warriors’ bigs, allowing Thompson to shoot 11-of-13 from the floor including 5-of-6 on 3’s in the game.

Golden State held the edge in assists (32 to 19), rebounds (51 to 30) and points-in-the-paint (34 to 22) over the Spurs. The Warriors shot 44-of-81 from the floor (54.3-percent) and 10-of-22 on 3’s (45.5-percent).

Golden State held a 86-63 lead, their biggest of the game, at the end of the third quarter and they never looked back from that point.

JaVale McGee, who made his fourth career postseason start, finished with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting in just 16 minutes of action was the real story. The 7-foot McGee had two of Golden State’s six blocks and for now, looks like the best center in head coach Steve Kerr’s center-by-committee rotation which includes, Zaza Pachulia and Damian Jones in the mix.

Rudy Gay led San Antonio with 15 points off the bench, to go along with a team-high six rebounds, while LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio’s leading scorer during the regular season at 23.1 points per game, scored just 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting in 24 minutes played.

San Antonio was cold from the floor in Game 1, connecting on 32-of-80 (40-percent) of their shots.  The Spurs can take some comfort that they did committed fewer turnovers (13 to 15) and shot better at the free throw line (19-of-24 to 15-of-22) than Golden State.

Second-year shooting guard Bryn Forbes added 14 points in 25 minutes for San Antonio.

Golden State is looking to eliminate San Antonio from the playoffs for the second-straight postseason. The Warriors completed a four-game sweep of the Spurs in last season’s Western Conference Finals in route to a 16-1 finish in the postseason and their second championship in three seasons.

The Warriors are 6-2 in the postseason against San Antonio at home.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Monday night at Oracle Arena.

 

 

Warriors blowout Spurs 113-92 in Game 1

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Photo credit: @warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND — The Golden State Warriors took the lead for good early in the first quarter and were never headed as they blew out the San Antonio Spurs 113-92 at the Oracle Arena Saturday.

Before the start of the first game of the playoffs, much had been written and discussed about the poor play of the Warriors after the injury to Steph Curry. The team, once the Houston Rockets secured the number one seed in the West, did not play well. They turned the ball over too many times, and they weren’t able to move the ball as well as they had done in the past three seasons. They did not play well on defense either as they were blown out by the Utah Jazz in the last game of the regular season. All those questions were answered Saturday as the blew out the Spurs.

Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr made a couple of changes to the starting lineup. He named JaVale McGee to start at center and Andre Iguodala started at guard. McGee probably had his best game of the season as played very well on both ends of the court. McGee scored a season-high 15 points and was terrific on defense as he was able to contain the Spurs’ big man, LaMarcus Aldridge. Iguodala scored just three points in the game, but he finished with 4 assists and 7 rebounds. The Spurs, in the playoffs for 21 consecutive years, could not find any answers to stop the Warrior offense. Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson paced the Warriors, and the fans at Oracle Arena went home happy.

The Warriors won the first quarter 28-17. McGee had 9 points and KD 11. The Warriors extended the lead to 16 at the end of the first half 57-41. Klay Thompson started to warm up as he contributed 9 points in the half. Durant had 16 and McGee 11. Rudy Gay led the Spurs with 10. None of the Spurs starters were in double figures in the half. The Warriors outrebounded the Spurs 26-15, and they had three steals and five blocked shots on defense. They held the Spurs to just 34.1% shooting from the floor.

In the third quarter, Golden State, as they have done so many times this season, dominated. They outscored San Antonio 29-22, and the game was essentially over at this point. They increased the lead to 27 with about 7 minutes left in the game. It was at this point that Kerr removed all of his regulars and let the bench finish the game. The Spurs were able to outscore the Warriors just by two points in the final quarter and lost by the final score of 113-92.

Game Notes and Stats: The Warriors were led by Klay Thompson’s 27-point game. Klay also made five 3-point shots and was in rhythm all game long. Kevin Durant poured in 24 points to go with seven assists and eight rebounds. It was quite a game for Durant. Draymond Green almost had a triple-double as he tallied 12 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds. McGee finished with 15. Shaun Livingston added 11. The Spurs had three players in double figures. LaMarcus Aldridge and Bryn Forbes had 14, and Rudy Gay led the Spurs with 15.

The Warriors shot 54.3% from the floor and held the Spurs to 40%. The Warriors made 10 3-point shots, and the Spurs made nine. The Warriors moved the ball well and found the open shooter repeatedly during the game as they recorded 32 assists. They turned the ball over 15 times, and when they commit less than 16 turnovers, they usually win.

The Warriors’ Steph Curry was examined by the team’s doctors Saturday and is making progress. Steph has been working out with the club but is still expected to miss the first round of the playoffs

Up Next: Game 2 of the best-of-seven series continues Monday night at Oracle Arena. Game time will be at 7:30 pm PT.

Sports Headlines with Tony Renteria: Rockets a favorite to represent Western Conference; Warriors will be at full strength once playoffs start

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Photo credit: nba.com

On the Sports Headlines podcast with Tony:

#1 You’ve got all kinds of choices in the NBA Playoffs, but focusing on the Western Conference, who does Tony like amongst Houston, Golden State, Utah, Portland, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans?

#2 Houston has had such a good year led by James Harden, whose been a workhorse and put out an all effort to help lead the Rockets this season.

#3 Golden State kind of got the injury epidemic all at once when the “Big Four” of Draymond Green, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson all went down. With Green, Durant, Thompson they ended their season losing by 40 to Utah on Tuesday night, 119-79, is this a prelude to the playoffs or expect for them to break out once the playoffs start?

#4 Turning to baseball, the Oakland A’s suffered some tough loses Tuesday night was no exception with a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0. The A’s simply couldn’t do anything with Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, who helped shutout Oakland, going six innings and giving up only one hit.

#5 The San Francisco Giants just put Johnny Cueto on the DL. Cueto spent a great deal of time on the DL last season. Cueto is being shelved and is at a 70% performance level because of coming off he mound to field on a bunt and had to cover first base. Cueto turned the other ankle on the ensuing play and manager Bruce Bochy said Cueto could return on Tuesday.

Tony does the Sports headline podcasts each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com