OAKLAND – The great Tim Duncan could have played, and quite well, and it would not have mattered Monday night at Oracle Arena.
The pace was too rapid, the shots too accurate, the defense too stifling for any of the San Antonio Spurs, certainly the oldest of them all, to keep up with the Warriors.
The Spurs came to town having lost six games this season, by a total of 33 points. The Warriors won by 30, strolling into the night with a 120-90 triumph that at least temporarily froze any debate about which of the NBA’s top two teams is superior.
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With Stephen Curry scoring 37 points and playing terrific defense to lead the charge, the Warriors never trailed, assuming control early and turning it into a rout in the third quarter.
[POOLE: Curry separates himself from MVP pack in blowout of Spurs]
“It was our night,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It wasn’t theirs.”
Asked how he could have countered the Warriors’ speed, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich delivered a brutally frank response.
Golden State Warriors
“I have no idea,” he said. “I can’t control their speed.”
The Warriors (41-4) ran at every opportunity. They sprinted even if it meant being a bit reckless. They wanted to stress the older, bigger Spurs (38-7), see if they could keep up, all the while presuming they could not.
“I don’t think we had a lot of silly turnovers tonight, and that’s important,” forward Draymond Green said. “When we’re playing at that pace, if we have a few turnovers here and there, trying to make plays, it is what it is. As long as we’re playing at our pace, we usually do more good than bad.”
The Warriors committed 21 turnovers, more than they would like. But they harassed San Antonio into a season-high 26 giveaways, off which they scored 32 points, roughly a quarter of their total.
[RATTO: Warriors' 30-point win sends Spurs back to drawing board]
“We got the game to our pace early,” Kerr said, “but it was our defensive pressure that set that pace. They got into a little bit of a rush. They are a team that normally doesn’t turn the ball over.”
Curry had five steals, Green had three and Shaun Livingston had two as the Warriors tied a season-best with 15 thefts. On a night billed as a battle of NBA titans, speed killed. And Duncan, sidelined by a tender right knee, is not going to the Hall of Fame because of his speed.
“We were slow, not very sharp,” veteran wing Manu Ginobili said of the Spurs, who last played Friday night. “It was no game.”
The Spurs’ big-ticket acquisition last summer, power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, wilted in the heat. MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard shrank. Point guard Tony Parker was fried. The trio combined for 26 points (8-of-21 shooting), with six assists and nine turnovers.
All of which left Popovich bereft of solutions, or even a hunch.
“They beat us at every facet of the game,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go to play with these guys.”
Well, Popovich was wrong in one respect. San Antonio blocked more shots, four to the three. The Warriors dominated all other places on the stat sheet, on the court, in the locker room or in the video room.
The game was so lopsided that one could sense equal parts disbelief and advance trepidation.
“They next time we play them, we know what’s coming,” Kerr said. “We know what they have in store for us.”
General manager Bob Myers, looking at the big picture, sounded a tone of caution.
“It’s not a series, it’s not the postseason and I think missing Duncan does matter,” he said. “Just his leadership and his poise and his experience, those things add something.
“It’s a good win, but I don’t know that we should read too much into it. I’ll leave that to (media). I hope we don’t. I don’t think it’s a positive if we read too much into that game. I don’t think that would help us.”
There was among the Warriors no dancing, not even the mildest of celebration for vanquishing a team that has tortured them for so many seasons.
There was, however, a measure of satisfaction over playing as well as they did and realizing that on this night there was nothing Spurs could do about it.