Shorthanded or not, the San Antonio Spurs will seek their first three-game winning streak of the season when they host the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
The Spurs followed a 110-104 victory over Oklahoma City on Tuesday with a 126-118 win over Utah on Thursday. Harrison Barnes had 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead San Antonio past the Jazz, while Zach Collins and Stephon Castle had 18 points each.
San Antonio rallied from a 20-point deficit late in the first half and roared to the front in the fourth quarter. Julian Champagnie scored 14 and Chris Paul racked up 13 points and 10 assists for his third double-double in the past four games.
“We just kind of stuck to the script and played with a little bit more energy (in the second half),” San Antonio interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “Don’t try to stop everything. Don’t try to get a 12-point play because we got in a hole a little bit from just some of the simple, solid basketball things that we’ve been talking about.”
Keldon Johnson added 12 points and Tre Jones and Charles Bassey finished with 11 apiece for the Spurs.
“The beauty of our team is that different guys can step up any given night,” Barnes said. “For these last two games, I think I was shooting six shots a game. The coaches just talked about just being aggressive and trying to get these wins.”
San Antonio played without injured star center Victor Wembanyama (bruised right knee) and guard Devin Vassell (sore left knee) for the third consecutive game. The availability for both players — as well as Johnson (hamstring) — is to be determined.
The Spurs are 7-3 at home, marking the first time since the 2017-18 season that the team has won at least seven of its first 10 home games.
The Warriors travel to the Alamo City after a determined 112-108 win in New Orleans on Friday that clinched first place in West Group C in the NBA Cup.
Golden State struggled to put away the shorthanded Pelicans, needing a pair of free throws by Draymond Green in the final 2.2 seconds to secure the victory. The Warriors have won two straight and five of their past six outings.
Andrew Wiggins led Golden State with 30 points while Stephen Curry added 19, Buddy Hield 12, and Green and Brandin Podziemski had 11 apiece.
The Warriors’ success has been achieved by coach Steve Kerr’s strategy of getting more players involved. Golden State regularly gets at least 10 minutes per game from 11 players.
“This is as deep as team as I’ve ever coached, and we are going to lean into that,” Kerr said. “The plan is to play a lot of people, and we have.”
Eleven players were on the court for at least 14 minutes for Golden State on Friday.
Saturday’s game will be the first of three meetings between the Warriors and Spurs this season. The teams won’t play again until March 30 in the Alamo City and then April 9 in San Francisco.
–Field Level Media