Warriors at Spurs
The Golden State Warriors are breaking every franchise record they can this season, and one more piece of business remains. The Warriors will try to end a 31-game regular-season losing streak in San Antonio when they visit the Spurs on Sunday.
Golden State has not won a regular season game in San Antonio since Feb.
14, 1997, but this Warriors squad is quite different from most over the
previous 18 years. Golden State extended its latest winning streak to
12 straight with a 123-110 win in Dallas on Saturday and is keeping its
foot on the gas despite having already locked up the No. 1 seed in the
Western Conference playoffs long ago. The Spurs are starting to look a
lot like the team that won the championship last season and pushed their
own winning streak to six straight with a 123-93 pasting of Denver on
Friday. That triumph extended San Antonio’s record with a 16th straight
season of at least 50 wins.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN Bay Area (Golden State), FSN Southwest (San Antonio)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (63-13): Golden State reached the second-longest
winning streak in franchise history with Saturday’s win, behind a
16-game streak from earlier this season. The Warriors are not going out
of their way to rest the starters yet but are keeping an eye on the
minutes, especially on back-to-backs, and did not have a starter log
more than 30 minutes in Saturday’s win. Golden State has scored at least
100 points in 14 straight games – the longest current streak in the
league – and nine of the last 12 wins have come by double figures.
ABOUT
THE SPURS (50-26): San Antonio is one of the few teams in the NBA that
can rival Golden State’s depth and built up their 30-point win on Friday
despite stars Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker combining for
just 12 points. Kawhi Leonard went for 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting in
the win and has reached double figures in scoring in each of the last 20
games. The Spurs are also getting a boost from reserve big man Aron
Baynes, who has posted 18 points in each of the last two games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Warriors need one more win or an Atlanta loss to clinch the best record in the NBA.
2. Spurs C Tiago Splitter (calf) left Friday’s game and is out for Sunday.
3.
San Antonio is one of only two teams this season to win at Golden
State, 113-100 on Nov. 11, but dropped the rematch 110-99 on Feb. 20.