Spurs look like real super team in opening rout of Warriors

OAKLAND — A super team was at Oracle Arena on Tuesday night, all right: the San Antonio Spurs.

The league’s resident cockroaches spoiled the debut of the Golden State Super Villains on Tuesday, dominating the season opener 129-100 at Oracle Arena and sparking at least three days of debate about whether their embarrassment of riches will fit into just one treasure chest. The Warriors next test comes at New Orleans on Friday, with road games at Phoenix and Portland from there and a secure-the-roof matchup against Durant’s old Oklahoma City Thunder team at Oracle Arena on Nov. 3.

Say what you will about the media hyperbole that is sure to come, but this much is indisputable: The Warriors’ first regular season loss comes 47 days earlier  than it did during the 24-0 start in their historic 73-9 season in 2015-16. What’s more, they didn’t lose a home game until — wait for it — April 1 (making them 36-1 at home).

"It'll be nice to wake up in the morning, watch film, and figure out exactly what went wrong, where the breakdowns were," back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry said afterward. "It's a nice little slap in the face. The first game, you want to come out and protect your home court with the energy of the home opener to live throughout the game. And we didn't do anything to let that happen."

Then again, real panic is that feeling a team like the Warriors gets when they falter in June. They learned that the hard way during their Finals flub against Cleveland, blowing the 3-1 lead and reminding us that the finish matters far more than the start. Still, with Kevin Durant making his Warriors debut and joining Curry and fellow All-Stars Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, what happened?

• The new-look Spurs happened, more than anything. While the Warriors not named Durant or Curry were missing a bevy of wide-open looks in the first half (7-of-24 shooting from the others in all) that the Spurs led 64-46, Kawhi Leonard (18 of his career-high 35 points before the break) was earning pole position in the MVP race (along with Portland’s Damian Lillard) and 27-year-old journeyman guard Jonathon Simmons was having quite the coming-out party (6-of-6 shooting for 15 of his 20 points).
• The Spurs kept the pressure by finishing quarters strong, with Simmons burying a buzzer 3 at the end of the third for a 64-46 edge. This came, of course, after Patty Mills and Simmons nailed back-to-back 3s in the final eight seconds of the second quarter to earn that 18-point edge. And while they received a quiet night from new addition Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge (26 points, 14 rebounds) looked more than ready to elevate his Spurs game during his second full season in San Antonio. Let’s not forget that, even with Tim Duncan heading for the exits during the offseason, San Antonio is coming off a season in which they won a franchise-record 67 games.

But enough about the team that wasn’t projected to win the title by nearly every prognosticator on the planet (myself included).

• Here’s all you need to know about the mood near the end: Jay Z and Beyonce were more loyal to the local team than the Warriors faithful who started heading for the exits at the 8:50 mark in the fourth quarter (with the Warriors down 110-82). The most powerful couple in entertainment hardly looked entertained, but they may have been holding back on those “Go Spurs Go!” chants because Warriors owner Joe Lacob was sitting just two seats away.
• The Warriors clearly have serious work to do on the defensive end, where the early indication was that they’ll miss Andrew Bogut a whole lot more than they may have realized. They didn’t give up 129 points the entire 2015-16 regular season, and did so only once in the playoffs (to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Game 3 loss of the Western Conference Finals). For the past four seasons, he was the backline safety net that allowed them to guard with reckless abandon on the wings. His replacement, veteran big man Zaza Pachulia (two points, three bounds, 20 minutes), simply doesn’t bring the same sort of force, intimidation or savvy.   

The larger question is about the Warriors’ top-to-bottom chemistry and how it will all play out. Just because the “Strength in Numbers” motto remains for marketing purposes doesn’t mean it’s still actually a real thing, even if they did plaster Iguodala, Green, James Michael McAdoo and Anderson Varejao on the Oracle billboard outside under the familiar message. They have six new players in all (Durant, Pachulia, David West, Patrick McCaw, JaVale McGee and Damian James) and lost not only Bogut (via trade to Dallas to make room for Durant) but key reserves like Mo Speights, Leandro Barbosa and Festus Ezeli. Their superstars will find their way, but the supporting cast may take some time to evolve into “Strength in Numbers, Part II.”

Damian Lillard scores 39 points in Trail Blazers' season-opening win

In a vacuum, the individual numbers of the Warriors stars were just fine: Durant had a team-high 27 points (11-of-18 shooting) and 10 rebounds, Curry had 26 (9-of-18 shooting, 3-of-10 from 3-point range) to go with four assists, and Green chipped in 18 points and 12 rebounds. But beyond Thompson’s struggles (11 points on 5-of-13 shooting), the most surprising stats were these: Golden State was beaten 24 to 20 in fast-break points, and destroyed on the boards 55-35.

"I saw a lot of things that really weren't us," Green said. "Kawhi got to his right hand every single play, which (if) you get him going left he's a completely different player. Now I'm not saying he's not a good player, but it's a completely different ballgame when you get him going to his left hand. We didn't do that.

"LaMarcus got a lot of everything, pretty much everything (that) he wanted. And most importantly, not so much just one-on-one matchups, (but) we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds (21)...If you don't close out the possession, the first stop is pointless. And that also stopped our fast break, which is the way we want to play."

So far, these Warriors simply aren't so super.

"We have to get better from this, learn from this and Game Two against the Pelicans down at their place," Durant said. "It's a slap in the face. It woke us up a bit and we're looking forward to getting better."