Kevin Durant Leads Warriors to Win over Spurs After Stephen Curry Injures Ankle
The San Antonio Spurs (37-28) need to weave through a gauntlet to lock up a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
On Thursday, they blew a big opportunity to make headway as they fell to the depleted Golden State Warriors, 110-107, at Oracle Arena.
The door was cracked open for the Spurs to steal a win in the Bay Area when Stephen Curry left the game minutes into the first quarter after tweaking his right ankle. Curry was eventually ruled out, and the Warriors stumbled through the second and third quarters without any pep in their step.
That all changed in crunch time.
Although the Spurs led by eight with 4:44 remaining, Kevin Durant erupted for 15 of his game-high 37 points in the final frame—including a stretch in which he dropped 14 in a row—to lead the Warriors to their seventh straight win.
"I just want to shoot a good shot," Durant told TNT's Rosalyn Gold-Onwude of his approach in the clutch. "Just get to my spot and trust in my work. I got to my spots, I was able to knock down some jump shots, Draymond [Green] set some great screens, and my teammates did it all for me tonight."
Speaking of Draymond, the Warriors Swiss army knife did more than set key screens.
In 36 minutes, Green finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his third triple-double of the season.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info), the Warriors are now 22-0 all-time when Green registers a triple-double. The only longer winning streak in NBA history belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers, who at one point won 24 straight games in which Magic Johnson triple-doubled.
That said, the Warriors (51-14) didn't have much clicking outside of Draymond and Durant.
Golden State shot 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) from beyond the arc, and Klay Thompson was in a funk with 13 points on 16 shots and just one made three.
The Spurs, it turns out, were the more balanced squad.
San Antonio had six scorers reach double figures, and LaMarcus Aldridge was the most dominant player on the court for three quarters, as he finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds.
But as has often been the case over the past month and change, the Spurs' defense cratered late.
San Antonio entered the night ranked 28th in fourth-quarter defensive rating dating back to Feb. 1, according to NBA.com, and it showed, as Durant got buckets at will to help the Warriors outscore the Spurs by 12 in the last period.
The Warriors will look to nab an eighth straight win Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, but they'll have to do so without Stephen Curry, per the Mercury News' Mark Medina.
The Spurs will be off Friday before they clash with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night in a nationally televised tilt on ABC.
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