Spurs at Warriors
The Golden State Warriors still can't seem to keep their cool, but at least they're back in the win column. The Warriors will again attempt to keep their emotions in check when they host the San Antonio Spurs in a key Western Conference battle on Saturday.
Golden State general manager Bob Myers addressed the team prior to Thursday's game about the growing number of technical fouls the team is accumulating, and head coach Steve Kerr agreed that the team needs "to do a much better job of staying poised," but All-Star forward Draymond Green still went out on Thursday and earned his NBA-leading 14th technical foul. "Yeah, I don't know what to do at this point," Green told reporters. "It really don't matter what I agree with. I don't have no power in this situation. Yeah, I don't know what to do at this point. It is what it is." The Warriors still managed to skip past the Western Conference-worst Dallas Mavericks 121-103, but the Spurs present a different challenge. San Antonio snapped its own two-game slide while beginning a six-game road trip by blasting the Phoenix Suns 129-81 on Wednesday.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC
ABOUT THE SPURS (35-21): Wednesday's contest matched the most one-sided loss in history for the Suns and one of the most complete performances for San Antonio, which held Phoenix to 34 percent from the floor. The one downside came in the second quarter, when starting point guard Dejounte Murray went down with an ankle injury. The 21-year-old is still getting used to leading the offense for the Spurs but scored 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting in 13 minutes before leaving on Wednesday and scored in double figures in six of the last eight games.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (42-13): Whoever the Spurs start at point guard on Saturday will have to contend with Golden State's Stephen Curry, who breezed to 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and eight assists in 30 minutes on Thursday. The Warriors fell behind by 10 points at the end of the first quarter in the win before outscoring Dallas 98-70 the rest of the way. "I think our talent just took over in the third quarter," Kerr told reporters. "We obviously had a lot more talent on the floor tonight than they did. Then Steph (Curry) and KD (Kevin Durant) got going, and they were hitting tough, contested shots."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Murray is considered doubtful for Saturday.
2. Durant is shooting 66.7 percent from the floor over the last four games.
3. Golden State, which swept the Spurs in the Western Conference finals last spring, took the first meeting of 2017-18 at San Antonio 112-92 on Nov. 2.