After falling behind by as many as 19 points in the first quarter, the Warriors eventually found their footing and came all the way back to earn a 112-92 road win over the Spurs on Thursday night. Klay Thompson continued his strong start to the season and led all players with 27 points and five three-pointers. Kevin Durant scored 19 of his 24 points in the second half, while Stephen Curry added 21 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. With the victory, Golden State improves 6-3 on the season.
GAME LEADERS
CLOSING QUARTERS
The Warriors dug themselves quite a hole to start the game, but were able to flip it on its head by having strong finishes to quarters. San Antonio held their largest lead of the night at 31-12 with 3:32 remaining in the first quarter, but Golden State outscored the Spurs 12-2 throughout the remainder of the frame to cut the deficit to single digits. Then, the Dubs did it again in the second quarter, outscoring San Antonio 15-4 in the final 4:26 of the first half to close within five points going into halftime. The Warriors would take their first lead of the entire game on Kevin Durant’s three-pointer just under two minutes into the second half, and wouldn’t trail for the rest of the night.
ON THE RUN
Another reason the Dubs were able to overcome their early deficit was their ability to create and score on fast break opportunities. During the third quarter, in which Golden State took over the game, the Warriors outscored the Spurs 12-0 in fast break points. For the game, Golden State outscored San Antonio 24-7 on the fast break.
THREE-POINT BATTLE
Coming into Thursday’s game, the Warriors were averaging an NBA-best 15.2 three-pointers per game, while San Antonio’s average of 7.0 per game ranked tied for last in that category. As it turned out, those averages were a pretty good indicator of what to expect, but that’s not the way it looked early on. It was the Spurs that had the hot hand from long range to start the game, knocking down six of their 13 three-point attempts in the opening quarter. However, San Antonio would go 1-of-11 from beyond the arc for the rest of the game. Golden State was proficient from long distance throughout the entire night, making 14 of their 28 three-point attempts in the contest.
KLAY KEEPS IT GOING
Klay Thompson had five of the Warriors’ 14 treys on only eight attempts. It was the continuation of a strong start to the 2017-18 campaign for Thompson, who is now shooting 53.0 percent from the field and 46.4 percent from three-point range this season. His performance on Thursday night may have been a bit surprising, given the opponent. Thompson entered the game averaging 15.9 points per game against the Spurs for his career, but he scored 16 in the first half on Thursday and finished with a game-high 27 points.
DIFFERENT DURANT
It was a tale of two halves for Kevin Durant on Thursday. The reigning NBA Finals MVP uncharacteristically struggled in the first half, making only one of his nine attempts from the field and totaling just five points through the first two quarters. The second half, however, was much kinder to Durant, as he made 8-of-9 field goal attempts for 19 points over the final two quarters.
UP NEXT
Golden State will try to complete an undefeated road trip when they travel to Denver to take on the Nuggets on Saturday night.