The San Antonio Spurs defended their home court Saturday night, improving to 59-10 on the season and 35-0 at the AT&T Center with their 87-79 win over the Golden State Warriors.
San Antonio's defense held the 62-7 Warriors to a season-low point total on Saturday and held reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry to just 14 points. The Spurs out rebounded Golden State 59-43 and forced the Warriors to take tough shots all night.
Between Curry and shooting guard Klay Thompson, Golden State's offense tends to make ridiculous circus three-point shots, but Saturday night, the Warriors were held to just 25 percent from three-point range. "Tonight we executed well on the defensive end, but offensively I didn't allow us to get comfortable offensively," Curry said following the game. "I've got to play a lot better, manage the game a lot better, especially if certain shots that I normally make aren't falling. You've got to be able to adjust and find different ways to impact the game."
While the Warriors star guard struggled to find his shot in San Antonio, Spurs power forward LaMarcus Aldridge came up with a huge performance, as he ended the night with a double-double, scoring a team-high 26 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Both Aldridge and small forward Kawhi Leonard were huge factors for the Spurs on both sides of the court Saturday night, and while it was a big win for the Spurs, they are not getting ahead of themselves.
"Tonight, obviously, is a big one," Spurs guard Danny Green said. "It's a good win, it's a lot of fun, and they're a good team. So it was a good test for us. (At the) end of the day, it's still a regular season game. We've got to keep moving forward, getting better and staying healthy, and focus on the next one."
It was a historic matchup between these two teams, as their combined .882 winning percentage going into Saturday's game was the highest ever for an NBA game this far into the season. While it was just a regular season game, it proved that the Warriors were not as untouchable as so many have predicted, and it enables basketball fans across the globe to become even more anxious as they look forward to a potential Western Conference Finals showdown between two phenomenal teams.
