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Spurs vs. Warriors: Score, Highlights and Reaction from 2016 Regular Season
- Updated: October 26, 2016
Last season, it took the Golden State Warriors 25 games to drop their first contest.
This year, 48 minutes did the trick.
Even though the Warriors entered Tuesday night engulfed in hype facilitated by Kevin Durant’s free-agent arrival, the San Antonio Spurs bested the defending Western Conference champions, 129-100, at Oracle Arena in both teams’ season opener.
Superteam? Spurs think otherwise. pic.twitter.com/QQJQ9KAxT2
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 26, 2016
Kawhi Leonard was sensational in the wire-to-wire rout with a career-high 35 points on 10-of-21 shooting and a perfect 15-of-15 night from the charity stripe, five rebounds and five steals. He routinely thrashed Golden State’s defense with composed shot-making, as NBA TV documented:
Kawhi Leonard falling out of bounds, still gets the bucket! #KiaTipOff16 https://t.co/Gre0sDXo0o
— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 26, 2016
Assisting Leonard in the onslaught were LaMarcus Aldridge and Jonathon Simmons, each of whom stuffed the stat sheet with aplomb.
Aldridge roasted the Warriors with 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting and 14 rebounds (eight offensive). He only had two games with at least 26 points and 14 boards last season, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
The breakout star, though, was Simmons.
In 28 minutes off the bench, the second-year pro poured in a career-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting (3-of-5 from three). He also provided the game’s signature moment with a block of Stephen Curry that would have made LeBron James proud:
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Conversely, the Warriors struggled to flash vintage form on offense.
Durant was solid in his Golden State debut with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting and 10 rebounds, and Curry netted 26 points on a respectable 50 percent shooting from the field. However, Curry missed seven of his 10 three-point attempts, while Klay Thompson converted just one of his six long-range looks.
All told, Golden State shot 46.5 percent from the field, 21.2 percent from three and committed 16 turnovers.
While the Warriors attempted to work out the kinks in their …
