Warriors Take Care of Business at Home

This past Thursday, April 7, 2016, the Warriors took care of business at home in the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, to keep their hopes alive of beating Michael Jordan's 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls' team record of total wins in an 82-game regular season. This was the 79th game of their season, and they will need to win three more games in order to break the record. This one was the game everyone believed would most likely be the game to decide whether or not they would break the record, as it was against the second best team in the west and the second best team in the entire league in the San Antonio Spurs. They will have to play the Spurs one more time before the end of the regular season, but Gregg Popovich is known for resting his star players before the playoffs, especially since three of his stars are getting older, and rest is becoming especially crucial for success. This game however, saw all of the Spurs key players play, although Tim Duncan did play limited minutes.
The game started off pretty decent for the Warriors. Thompson started off the game strong with a three-point jumper, and Harrison Barnes carried a load for the Warriors during the first part of the quarter, as Stephen Curry did not score for a while. However, soon, the defending MVP picked up the space and scored a couple baskets by the end of the quarter. By the time the first twelve minutes of the game had elapsed, the score was 20-15 in favor of the Warriors. While this is somewhat good for the Warriors, as they had a lead, Steve Kerr was also somewhat concerned as he knew that a low scoring game would favor the defensive-minded Spurs.
The second quarter was much more high scoring, as the Warriors outscored the Spurs 32-25. This was due to continued high play by both Barnes and Thompson, as well as some nice buckets from Brandon Rush. However, the Warriors were still a little concerned due to the fact that Stephen Curry still hadn't scored much, despite leading the league in points per game this season.
The third quarter gave many Golden State Fans a sigh of relief as Curry absolutely exploded in this quarter, with some much needed help from Andrew Bogut, Draymond Green, and Festus Ezeli. The Warriors showed absolute dominance in this period outscoring San Antonio by six more points 35-29 to take an 87-69 eighteen point lead into the final period of play.
The fourth quarter was not very competitive, but the Spurs finally outscored the Warriors 32-25. This was not enough to give them the win, which is all Gregg Popovich cared about, as the Golden State Warriors did come out victorious with a 112-101 win, but wins are not really the focus for Popovich anymore until the playoffs. The Spurs are focused heavily on rest, and competing for another NBA Championship. It will be interesting, however, to see if the Warriors will be able to come out with the same result when they travel to San Antonio later this season.