By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
OAKLAND –Klay Thompson returned to the starting lineup after missing his first game with a sore hand scoring 29 points but it wasn’t enough as the San Antonio Spurs followed up a victory Monday night in Los Angeles over the Clippers, with a 113-100 victory over the Golden State Warriors in front of a sellout crowd of 19,596 at Oracle Arena on Tuesday night.
“The hand was sore, but credit to the training staff for working me hard the last few days to get me right,” said Thompson. “It felt good to be back out their, but it just didn’t click tonight…the turnovers are killing us, but we got to cut it down. We got too much talent not to get up shots.”
Harrison Barnes scored 11 of his 22 points in the first quarter to go along with eight rebounds, while Marreese Speights chipped in with 11 points to lead the Warriors off the bench.
Stephen Curry added 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the floor, including 0-of-7 from 3-point range, snapping a streak at 75 games in which Curry made at least one 3-pointer. Overall, Golden State shot 38-of-70 (54.3%) from the floor, but it were the 20 turnovers that continues to plague the Warriors.
“I thought we executed for the most part…but we need to take care of the ball better,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. “The Spurs played their best game of the year tonight.”
It was Golden State’s fourth straight game with at least 20 turnovers this season, and are averaging 22.5 turnovers per game, which leads the NBA.
Tony Parker finished with 28 points and seven assists, Kwahi Leonard scored 19 points and six rebounds for San Antonio, who dominated Golden State in the paint, outscoring the Warriors 48-28. The Spurs only committed eight turnovers the entire game.
Tim Duncan scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Manu Ginobili added 17 points off the bench for San Antonio (4-3), who continue their four game California swing when they return to Los Angeles Friday to take on the hapless 1-6 Lakers, before finishing up in the capital city against the surprising 5-3 Sacramento Kings on Saturday.
After winning their first five games to open the season, Golden State (5-2), has dropped their last two games, but will look to get back on the winning note as they will continue their three-game home stand Thursday with the Brooklyn Nets coming to Oracle.
Game Notes
* One week after Klay Thompson won the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week after averaging a league-leading 29.7 points per game for games played on Tuesday Oct. 28 through Sunday Nov. 2, the other member of the “Splash Brothers” won the same award the next week as Stephen Curry was named Western Conference Player of the Week for games played on Wednesday Nov. 3 through Sunday Nov. 9. Curry averaged an NBA-tying 30 points per game, to go along with 4.7 3-pointers made, seven assists per game, and six rebounds per game.
*The Golden State Warriors have waived guard Nemanja Nedovic, the team announced today.
As a rookie in 2013-14, Nedovic appeared in 24 games and posted averages of 1.1 points, 0.5 assists and 0.6 rebounds in 5.9 minutes per contest. The 23-year old guard spent 15 games with the Warriors’ D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, tallying 14.9 points, 4.2 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 28.5 minutes. He did not appear in a game for Golden State this season.
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