After months of waiting, the 71st NBA regular season will finally take its flight. Now let's take a look at the upcoming game between the top 2 teams in the West last season, the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs.
Who's going to win?
Golden State Warriors will win in a close game against the San Antonio Spurs.
As dominant as the Warriors on paper, I still believe that this will be a close game. One of the Warriors' few weakness as of now is size. In terms of size, the Spurs is very strong. They have LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol in their frontcourt. Plus they have the 2-time NBA Defensive player of the year in Kawhi Lenard.
But still, I believe that the Warriors will still prevail.
The Warriors will probably score around 110-120. And the difference in score might be around 5-10 points. A close game indeed.
The Starters
According to warriors.com, the projected starting line-up for the Spurs are LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, Kawhi Lenard, Kyle Anderson and Tony Parker. On the other hand, the projected starting line-up for the Warriors are Zaza Pachulia, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.
For the Warriors, they lost 2 of their starters last year. Andrew Bogut and Harrison Barnes just signed with the Dallas Mavericks. They now have Zaza Pachulia and Kevin Durant as new starters. Compared to last year, this starting line-up is way better.
The Spurs also lost 2 of their starters last year. Tim Duncan just retired last season while Danny Green is healing his injury. Replacing them is Pau Gasol and Kyle Anderson. For me, last year's starting line-up is much better compared to this year. Although when Danny Green comes back from his injury, that will be a different situation.
In terms of the battle of starters, the Warriors will triumph. They have overwhelming talent in their starting line-up with 4 out of 5 starters as All-Stars last year. And they are at the primes of their career right now.
Home Court Advantage
The Warriors are so dominant at Oracle Arena.
They have a combined record of 78-4 over the past 2 seasons, per Wikipedia. That's 95 percent chance of winning for the Warriors when they are playing at home.
This will be a big factor in this game. This is also a debut for Kevin Durant in a regular season game. Expect the crowd to be more loud and ecstatic, especially when Klay, KD or Curry become hot.
Who will score big?
For the Warriors, I expect Steph Curry to lead the charge on offense and score around 30-35 points and make around 6-7 threes. Durant might have a 25-27 point night. Thompson's scoring might go around 15-20 points. Green will once again flirt with triple-double.
For the Spurs, I expect the two big men in Aldridge and Gasol to dominate the low post and tally a double-double. With a lack of size for the Warriors, Aldridge and Gasol will control the inside. Kawhi Lenard will score around 25-30 points to lead the Spurs in scoring.
