FanPost

Round Two Preview: Spurs vs Warriors

Ezra Shaw

The last time the Golden State Warriors won in San Antonio was in 1997 on Valentine's Day.

On Monday, May 6, don't expect the Spurs to show much love to the Warriors who come into town fresh off upsetting the #3 seeded Denver Nuggests on Thursday.

If the Spurs are the most boring team in the league, the Warriors are the yin to the Spurs's yang, as they are one of the league's most young and exciting teams this year.

Part of the reason they are so exciting is due to how easy they can score. Offensively, the Warriors are averaging the highest number of points out of all playoff teams currently at 110.2 points per game.

On the flip side, the Spurs are second amongst current playoff teams in holding teams to fewest amount of points per game, with opponent teams averaging 85.3 points per game.

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via binaryapi.ap.org

Key Matchup:

Stephen Curry vs Kawhi Leonard

Curry is arguably having his best season of his career. In the playoffs, he is the 4th leading scorer behind Durant, Anthony, and Harden.

The biggest strength of his offensive game? The three ball. Curry has the best three point shot percentage (44.6%) than any current NBA player.

Not only does he score, but he gets his teammates involved as well which is evident by his 9.6 assists per game, which is the most of any current playoff player.

While you won't see Kwahi on top of any number category, at least for now, he is the best perimeter defender the Spurs have and will undoubtedly have the toughest job this series, containing Stephen Curry as much as possible.

The Spurs are no stranger to facing teams with an offensive juggernaut such as Curry. As former Spurs All-Star, Sean Elliot, has reffered to in the past, the Spurs will try to "cut off the head of the snake". The strategy allows the rest of the Warriors to step up more while allowing the entire Spurs team to give more focus to defending Curry.

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via static.foxsports.com

X Factor for Spurs:

Manu Ginobili.

Ginobili, nicknamed El Contusion for good reason, will be the difference maker in this series as he usually is.

How so?

Recovering from yet another injury (hamstring in early April), Ginobili returns just in time for the playoffs and is picking up right where he left off.

Only this time, it is vintage 6th man of the year Manu Ginobili. While his minutes are still only slowly increasing (averaging 19 minutes a game this playoffs), his presence has revived a Spurs bench who have recently slumped towards the tail end of the regular season.

Coming off the bench, Manu is orchestrating the Spurs's bench with more and more ease as evident in the recent ressurgence of Matt Bonner and DeJuan Blair, who have notoriously been non-existent in previous years of Spurs playoff basketball.

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via www.t-s-b-n.com

My Prediction: Spurs in Six.

Spurs will come out of the gate strong at home after being fresh from sweeping the Lakers. The Warriors will give them a run for their money back in Golden State with the electric crowd energizing its young players. The Spurs might lose one at home if they are not focused, but I believe in the end they will steal at least one at Golden State and win in six games.

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