After a heartbreaker in Sacramento, The San Antonio Spurs were able to take home a comfortable win against the Golden State Warriors 126-113 in San Francisco. Saturday’s victory was the first matchup of a two-game series that will finish in San Antonio on Monday night.
Coming into the game, the Spurs were 0-1 on the season against the Warriors suffering a loss back in November. Unfortunately on this go around, both teams entered the matchup without their best players.
A Steph-less Warriors would step on the court against an even more compromised Spurs team that would lack Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, and Cedi Osman.
a W in the Bay 🎉@FrostBank | #sponsored pic.twitter.com/UVFwiaEweS
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 10, 2024
The Shorthanded Spurs Come Together
Despite missing their best two players on the team, the Spurs were able to rally together and turn in a complete team effort to stop the Warriors at home. Five different Spurs hit double figures, and all 10 players that suited out for the team recorded minutes. With monstrous bench performances from Keldon Johnson (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Dominick Barlow (19 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists), the team was able to capitalize against the Warriors maintaining a double-digit lead comfortably starting from the second quarter of the game.
The Spurs also recorded their best three-point percentage performance of the season. The Spurs were shooting at 52%, while the Warriors shot 33% from the three-point line.
The Spurs shot a new season high 52% from three tonight.
They also scored 51 points from the 3PT line, one of their higher games in made 3s for the season.
— Paul Garcia (@PaulGarciaNBA) March 10, 2024
Starters, Jeremy Sochan (20 points) Julian Champagnie (17 points), and Malaki Branham (20 points) all turned in impressive performances as well, and the boost from the bench made the engine run that much smoother.
After the game, Popovich went on to say that Dominick Barlow and Devonte Graham turned in his favorite performances of the night.
“Dom and Devonte’ were my favorite players. Devonte hasn’t played much, he came in there and gave us a real boost, settled things down and Dom was really solid at both ends of the floor all night long.”
Devontae Graham had a solid push for the team with eight points, and two rebounds in 11 minutes of play.
Pop on Dominick Barlow and Devonte' Graham off the bench tonight: "Dom and Devonte' were my favorite players. Devonte' hasn't played much, he came in there and gave us a real boost, settled things down and Dom was really solid at both ends of the floor all night long."
— Paul Garcia (@PaulGarciaNBA) March 10, 2024
Round Two In San Antonio
With San Antonio on the verge of setting a record for the fewest wins in franchise history, the team will have to win 6 games out of the remaining 18 games to avoid that mark.
The Golden State Warriors will head south to San Antonio for a second matchup on Monday night.
Meanwhile, the Spurs will be able to play at home over their next eight games. This includes the I-35 series that will have Austin host Spurs in the Moody Center, where their G-League affiliates play.
