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Friday was always going to be an incredibly difficult game for the Golden State Warriors. They were on the road, taking on a San Antonio Spurs team that had won 10 consecutive games. Just on strength of opponent, it was the hardest game of the year for the Dubs.
And then “hard” turned into “impossible” when Steph Curry was injured during Wednesday’s loss to the Houston Rockets. With Curry sidelined, the Warriors were, essentially, without hope in this game.
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Still, about once a year the Warriors — like most teams — are good for a shocking upset bid when undermanned. Could this be the night where they’re competitive against all odds?
It only took a few possessions for the answer to be an emphatic “no.” Steve Kerr opted for a small starting lineup — De’Anthony Melton, Brandin Podziemski, Will Richard, Yaxel Lendeborg, and Draymond Green — hoping to outrun a team that they would be catastrophically undersized against, regardless of who they started.
And boy howdy, that — like everything the team tried — did not work. The opening possessions went exactly the way you would expect: the Warriors could not find an inch of space, while the Spurs broke them down. It felt like a team of seven-footers was playing a team of five-footers … it seemed like every Warriors pass was deflected, and every shot was blocked or contested. In the time it took you to figure out how to get this Prime Video game on your TV, San Antonio had taken a 7-0 lead.
They were getting everything they wanted on offense, using the gravity and playmaking of Victor Wembanyama to fully break down a helpless Warriors defense. Kerr called his first timeout less than three minutes into the game, with the Spurs leading 12-0. That timeout helped Golden State’s defense a tiny bit, but it did nothing for their offense. 12-0 became 14-0 became 16-0 became 18-0, the best start to a game in San Antonio’s history.
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Finally, more than halfway through the quarter, the Warriors — who started the game 0-for-11 from the field — got on the board, when Gui Santos absorbed some contact for a tough and-one.
But even that play was…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/warriors-demolished-stephon-castle-spurs-051855296.html
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Publish date : 2026-11-14 05:18:00
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