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New-look Warriors host Spurs on Tuesday night
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 10/24/2016  at  1:11:00 PM
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SAN ANTONIO SPURS (0-0)

at GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (0-0)

Tip-off: Tuesday, 10:30 p.m. ET
Line: Golden State -9.0, Total: N/A

Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors open up their season with a home game against Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

San Antonio was magnificent a year ago, but a Golden State team that broke the record for most wins in a single season overshadowed the Spurs. They should be good again this season, though, as they brought in PF/C Pau Gasol to replace the legendary Tim Duncan, who retired over the summer. That acquisition of Gasol, like the Spurs’ 2015-2016 season, was overlooked due to the Warriors’ offseason. Golden State lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last year, but the team was a bit unlucky and many would say that it was the best in basketball by a wide margin. That’s why everybody in the world was shocked when Golden State was able to sign SF Kevin Durant. The league’s best team added a top-five player and the rest of the league fears how good the Warriors just might be in 2016-2017. San Antonio isn’t going to back down from Golden State, though. The Spurs are the most well coached team in the NBA and they’ll be prepared for whoever they are facing this season. These teams have played each other close over the years, as Golden State is 4-3 both SU and ATS when facing San Antonio over the past three seasons. The Warriors, are, however, 3-1 both SU and ATS when hosting the Spurs in that span. One injury worth noting is that SG Danny Green (Quad) is out for the next 3-4 weeks for San Antonio. He is a very good “three-and-D” guy for the Spurs and his presence will be missed in this meeting with one of the league’s most explosive offenses.

San Antonio may have lost a future Hall of Famer in Tim Duncan, but it also added one in PF/C Pau Gasol (16.5 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 2.0 BPG last season). Gasol will join PF LaMarcus Aldridge (18.0 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 1.1 BPG last season) and SF Kawhi Leonard (21.2 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG, 1.0 BPG last season) in an elite frontcourt for the Spurs. Both Gasol and Aldridge are some of the game’s best midrange shooters and they’ll both feast on open looks this season. It’s also going to be exciting to see what their height does against this Warriors team. San Antonio has a major mismatch inside with both of them and the team will need to see if it can exploit that here. Leonard, meanwhile, can score in every way imaginable, and he is also the best defender in the NBA. He’ll look to make life on Durant miserable on Tuesday and he should be able to do it. The x-factor for San Antonio this season will be PG Tony Parker (11.9 PPG, 5.3 APG last season). Parker has looked washed up these past few seasons, but the Spurs need him to bounce back this year. He is still a creative scorer in the paint and as good of a midrange shooter as there is at the position, but he needs to defend his position a lot better. Curry could torch him on Tuesday.

PG Steph Curry (30.1 PPG, 6.7 APG, 5.4 RPG, 2.1 SPG last season) had one of the best seasons in NBA history last year, and things are going to get a lot easier for him. With SF Kevin Durant (28.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.2 BPG, 1.0 SPG last season) being added to a core that already included Curry, SG Klay Thompson (22.1 PPG last season) and PF Draymond Green (14.0 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 7.4 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.4 BPG last season), all of the Warriors’ scorers are going to have their fair share of room to work with this season. Defenses are going to need to pick their poison with this group and that should allow Durant, Curry and Thompson to have some of their most efficient seasons to date. The three of them are used to working hard for their shots, but they’ll now see more catch-and-shoot opportunities and more space to work on their defenders one-on-one. The most important player against this Spurs team could, however, be offseason acquisition C Zaza Pachulia (8.6 PPG, 9.4 RPG last season). With Andrew Bogut now on the Mavs, the Warriors need Pachulia to be the big body that teams fear in the paint. If he does not play solid defense in this game then Gasol and Aldridge will dominate Golden State and spoil Durant’s home debut.


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