It was pretty obvious to anyone watching, considering the score and just the way the game played out — Golden State was the better team and completely dominated the Spurs and went on to win by 30 Monday night. The Warriors defense forced 25 Spurs turnovers — 15 of those steals — which allowed the Warriors to get out and run, playing the entire game at their tempo, while the Spurs’ stars could get little going (LaMarcus Aldridge had five points on nine shots). The Warriors looked like champions; the Spurs lacked the poise we have come to expect from them.
Manu Ginobili owned up to all that, via Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News.
From the locker room locker room: Ginobili admitted the obvious ... #Warriors better than #Spurs pic.twitter.com/vy8fiZpMii
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) January 26, 2016
“At this point, they are better than us. I’m not embarrassed to face it. They were much better, they wanted it more, they were playing at home, they were fired up, and we couldn’t get anything going.”
“They outplayed us in every single aspect of the game,” said Manu Ginobili, who finished with eight points in the loss. “Aggression was one, shooting was another, defense, everything. It was the whole package. I don’t think there was one area in which it was close. They just outplayed us in every aspect. We were slow, not very sharp. It was no game.”
It’s a very Spurs thing to own up to this rather than break out a “we didn’t have Tim Duncan” or whatever lame excuse they could try to trot out. This was a beatdown, they owned up to it.
The good news for the Spurs is that this is one regular season game, if/when these teams meet in May this game will have no bearing.
It did lay out what San Antonio will need to do to hang with Golden State in a seven-game series — take care of the ball, slow the game down, and Aldridge is going to have to score on Draymond Green more efficiently. If you don’t think the Spurs are capable of that kind of turnaround, well, have you even watched the Spurs in the past 15 years? Count this team out at your own risk. You can be sure Steve Kerr knows better.
