The Warriors stole the final points of the quarter and a little of the momentum when David West threw an end-to-end pass to Ian Clark, who caught the ball underneath the Spurs' basket and laid it in as the horn sounded, bringing Golden State within 33-29 at the quarter break. San Antonio opened game 3-of-16 shooting, but the bigger issue is they went 1-of-8 in the paint against a Warriors team that started small (Patrick McCaw instead of JaVale McGee).
Ginobili led the Spurs with 21 points in the Game 3 of the series. The Spurs will tip off the best-of-seven series on Sunday afternoon in Oakland against a Golden State Warriors juggernaut that is undefeated in the postseason.
It's not fun to see the same team in the NBA Finals for 3 years straight.
The victory appears to put the Warriors on a collision course to meet the mighty Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association finals.
Game 2: The Warriors let the short-handed Spurs know that they meant business in a 136-100 shellacking at Oracle.
Whether it was intentional or not still fuels debate, but when Zaza Pachulia of the Golden State Warriors aggressively closed out on San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard in Game 1 of their NBA Western Conference Finals series, it changed the matchup's entire complexion. He has won four league championships in 15 seasons with San Antonio. LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and five rebounds to lead the Spurs while Manu Ginobili added 21 points off the bench. They stood at 10-0 in the postseason off of sweeps over in in the first round and Toronto in the conference semifinals.
"I mean, a game like that just happens", Lue said. Leonard landed on Pachulia's foot and the Spurs star re-injured his ankle and has not returned to play in the playoffs. One of the very best players in the National Basketball Association, and Popovich is going to send him out on a bum ankle, risk a more serious injury, only to get to the point where the Spurs are down 3-1 and heading back to Oakland for Game 5? We get a lot of support. There had been a chance that the two NBA Finals opponents would have arrived without having lost a single game.
Kevin Durant says he has no regrets about his decision to join the Golden State Warriors last summer.
"I think if Pop tells any guy anything, he's going to listen", said Mike Brown, a former Spurs assistant who is now the current interim coach of the Warriors, with a laugh. The Cavs came into Game 3 against Boston averaging 116.3 points with a winning margin of 14.3 points.
"I think our philosophy has helped some players extend their careers". "I feel that some adversity is all part of the postseason".
Try as they may, the Jazz simply don't have the arsenal to go the distance against a Golden State side near its best. Both teams combined a 22-0 in the playoffs, so they hadn't lost a game yet. "It's our job to make sure that we defend him as best we can and just make every - take other guys out of the game".
James came into Game 3 against the Celtics with 5,915 career playoff points, second to Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and his 5,987 playoff points. "But we definitely understand that this (Boston) team is not going to quit, they're going to fight, they're going to compete".