San Antonio Spurs beats Golden State Warriors in season opener 129-100
The Golden State Warriors won the Kevin Durant lottery this past July 4, signing the 2014 NBA MVP to a two-year, $54.3 million deal with a player option in the second year.Consequently, the Warriors traded last year's starting center Andrew Bogut to Dallas to clear cap room. The team also renounced its rights to starting small forward Harrison Barnes, another needed move to clear cap space for Durant's contract.
Leandro Barbosa, Festus Ezeli, Brandon Rush and Marreese Speights all signed with new teams for the 2016-2017 season. The team even lost assistant coach Luke Walton; the team was 39-4 while he was the interim coach in Steve Kerr's absence.
But the Warriors signed veteran big men David West and Zaza Pachulia to minimum-level contracts to seemingly offset the losses. Mike Brown, head coach with the Cavaliers and the Lakers, was hired to replace Walton.
With the two-time reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry playing alongside Durant, everyone expected the Warriors to be even better than last year's team that was 53 seconds away from winning its second consecutive NBA Championship.
The 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors, with the NBA MVP's of the past 3 seasons in its starting lineup, looked to be an even bigger juggernaut than the team that finished with a record 73-9 record.
In his first regular season game in a Warriors uniform, against the Warriors' Western Conference nemesis no less, Kevin Durant came through in MVP fashion with a team-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting in 37 minutes to go with 10 rebounds.
Kevin Durant and Steph Curry scored the first 16 points of the game for the Warriors. The super team took a 31-20 lead after the first quarter. No, not the Warriors. It was the Spurs. Kawhi and his teammates closed out the 1st quarter with a 19-4 run. The Spurs held the Warriors not named Curry or Durant to 7 of 24 shooting in the first half,
The wise man, Aristotle, once said that "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The Warriors miss Bogut's defense, as well as the synergy that last year's bench depth provided.
The good news is it that it was only one game. Curry, Durant, Kerr and company still have a full season, 81 games plus the playoffs to build a masterpiece.
Draymond Green alley oop to Andre Iguodala for the slam!
Game Notes
The Warriors trailed by 11 at end of 1st quarter. They were 3-1 last season in games in which they trailed by 10 or more at the end of the 1st quarter.The Spurs held the Warriors to just 100 points. Warriors scored 100 points or fewer only 9 times last season. They were 4-5 in those games.
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