Spurs-Warriors Storylines: 6 To Follow During the Western Conference Finals

Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) shoots the basketball against the San Antonio Spurs during the second half at Oracle Arena. The Spurs defeated the Warriors 129-100.

On May 1, the San Antonio Spurs lost Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals by 27 points, run out of their own building by the splash-and-dash Houston Rockets. The Rockets took 50 threes, connecting on 22 of them. They scored 126 points. Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge scored four points on seven shots, and was a -36 in 25 minutes. Perhaps time had come for the Spurs at last.

Or, you know, not.

Ten days and three wins later, the Spurs finished off the Rockets with a 114-75 wire-to-wire blowout in Houston. Kawhi Leonard sat out with an ankle injury and still was more effective than fellow MVP candidate James Harden, who went 2-11 from the floor, committed six turnovers, and looked entirely out of sorts. Aldridge? He had a team-high 34 points and 12 boards.

Many people, including yours truly, feel that the Golden State Warriors are an unstoppable force who will end this season as champions. At the very least a Warriors rematch with the defending champion Cavaliers seems like a near inevitability. On the other hand, maybe it’s best not to make any assumptions quite yet. Just ask the Rockets. — R.B.

The only question that matters in this series is what kind of Kawhi Leonard are we getting?

The Spurs Mr. Everything surprisingly sat out Game 6 against the Rockets to rest an ankle that clearly wasn’t right and we all thought the Spurs were screwed. Well, when you’ve got Gregg Popovich and seasoned veterans like the Spurs, you can easily find ways to get past flawed teams like the Rockets if you dictate the game on your terms—which they did to close out the series on the road.

But the idea that the Spurs can do that against the Warriors enough to win four games is probably far fetched. But hey, underestimate the Spurs at your own peril (see above). And if Leonard is the same player we saw at the end of Game 5, limping around and largely ineffective on both ends of the floor, then the Spurs really are screwed. Listen, 75 percent of Kawhi Leonard is better than 100 percent of most NBA players, but the Spurs need Leonard him to do so much, including blanketing Kevin Durant.

Durant holds a pretty clear statistical advantage in 30 career head-to-head matchups, averaging 26.9 points per game to Leonard’s 16.0. As the Mercury News points out, 18 of those games have come in the playoffs and Durant is 16-14 overall, having won two of three playoff series.

So what does that tell us? Not a ton, to be honest, but it's interesting to note. What we do know is that the Warriors don’t necessarily need Durant to catch fire to win this series. The Spurs, on the other hand, need peak Leonard every game. Can he be that with a suspect ankle, having to carry a huge offensive burden while also chasing around Durant and Golden State’s backcourt? We have our reservations. — A.C.

When Gregg Popovich and Mike Brown first faced off in a playoff series as head coaches, it was the mismatch to end all mismatches. Pop’s Spurs were playoff-tested and Finals-approved, having won two titles in the previous four seasons. Brown’s Cavaliers were—well, they had LeBron James, then just 22 years old and in his fourth season. The result was a Spurs sweep, and while the Cavs lost Game 3 by three and Game 4 by just one, said result was never really in doubt.

A decade later, Popovich still leads the Spurs, while Warriors assistant Brown has taken the reins with Steve Kerr sidelined. This time it’s Brown who has the better team, and Pop who has the young two-way star. Expectations are reversed as well, with the Warriors entering the series as odds-on favorites. The rosters favor the Warriors. Experience favors the Spurs and Pop. — R.B.

Although, San Antonio did win the season series 2-1 against Golden State this year, the Spurs still feel a little too old, a little slow compared to the Warriors. They can beat James Harden’s Rockets without Tony Parker or Kawhi Leonard, but they won’t be able to do the same against Golden State.

Steph, K.D., and them boys have too much to prove this season and nobody should be surprised if they make minced meat out of San Antonio. Without Tony Parker for seven games, I don’t see how San Antonio gets past Golden State this year. Manu Ginobili could reach back as much as he wants, the Spurs are still too old, too slow for 48 minutes of Golden State's death lineup. The Spurs might have the edge when it comes to their bigs, but they can't stifle a Golden State attack full of snipers for a whole series.  — A.D. 

Or maybe, more appropriately, time to exorcize some demons.

Who knows if Durant is thinking back to last year's stinging loss to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals after Oklahoma City took a 3-1 lead? If you ask him, he's probably going to say it's the furthest thing from his mind. But he's human and while he's not out there getting revenge on the Warriors since he jumped ship to the bad guys last summer, he's back on the big stage where he didn't exactly elevate the Thunder to a second NBA Finals appearance when he had three opportunities. Durant wasn't bad in those final three losses of the 2015-16 campaign, but he wasn't scintillating either. He shot a combined 41.2 percent from the field in those three losses, including his 40-point effort in a 9-point defeat in Game 5. 

Now, he's the Warriors' second leading scorer in the playoffs, averaging 23.3 points since he sat out two games against the Blazers. But he's their best player, he's probably going up against a slightly compromised Kawhi Leonard, and it's time for him to ball out. Technically, Durant doesn't have the do the heavy lifting because the Warriors are so damn talented, and that's part of their beauty. We've seen the Warriors smoke the Spurs without Durant's services. It happened back in the teams' third and final meeting when a Durant-less Golden State came back from a 22-point deficit to defeat San Antonio by 12 in the Lone Star State. But let's be honest: we're expecting big things from K.D. Or demanding it after last year's debacle and his decision to chase a title as a member of the Warriors. — A.C. 

This is all so interesting, watching you all flip-flop on Golden State the way you do. Just two seasons ago they were atop the throne…one blown 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and a Kevin Durant addition later, and they became the villains. But now everyone is rooting for them, all of a sudden, to off the Spurs?!

I understand you’re in a rush to get the Cavs-Warriors showdown, but I don’t think Golden State deserves that satisfaction. I hope Pop & Co. dispose of the Warriors in jaw-dropping fashion, just like when 39-year-old Manu Ginobili devastated 27-year-old MVP candidate James Harden with an embarrassing, game-saving block in Game 5 of the Rockets-Spurs series. I have nothing against the Splash Bros., and Draymond Green’s shit-talking gives them some personality, so that’s fine, too. My issue is the intruder they introduced to the squad.

We see what happened in Oklahoma City once Durant became a turncoat: Russell Westbrook had to put the team on his back. Did he have all those triple-doubles because he wanted to, or because he had to? Do we want to see K.D. rewarded for causing Westbrook to work himself into a frenzy? No. Durant the Cupcake deserves to see the dark side of ring-chasing. Sometimes you join the squad too late for glory. — D.R.