3 things to look for in Warriors-Spurs heavyweight bout
Standing in one corner are the Golden State Warriors, armed to the teeth with the league's most explosive scorer and an unstoppable offense.
In the other corner, there stand the San Antonio Spurs, a 15-man squadron led by the best coach in basketball wielding a historically dominant defense.
Warriors or Spurs? It's the debate that's consumed basketball conversation since the start of the season. At long last, with the gods having firmly distinguished themselves from the mortals, Monday's match will bring about a clash of the titans.
Here are three things to look for in Monday's showdown:
DPOY vs. MVP
Most competent defenses can take away one option for the offense, but the beauty of Golden State's multidimensional attack is the Dubs will always find a way to beat you.
Stephen Curry isn't just the NBA's leading scorer with over 30 points per game, he's also the most efficient with a league-leading true shooting percentage of 68.2. Stopping Curry - an impossible task - should be San Antonio's top priority.
Gregg Popovich has reigning Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard at his disposal. Siccing Leonard and his gigantic wingspan to blanket Curry is a tempting proposition.
Curry, however, is too smart to be guarded by just one man. When opposing teams smother Curry with a ballhawk, the Warriors get creative by getting the reigning league MVP off the ball to navigate around screens or using the pick-and-roll to force switches.
Central to that strategy is Draymond Green, who's emerged as the Warriors' second most important character on offense. The amorphous Green is dangerous in just about every scenario when paired with Curry, so Popovich may consider using Leonard to check Green instead.
Either way, the Warriors force everyone to defend, and there's bound to be mismatches. Putting Leonard on Green would be a win-win, however, as either Leonard will neuter Green's ability to operate or Green's high screens will get Leonard on Curry. The key is to maximize Leonard's abilities by getting him involved in as many defensive possessions as possible.
Pace and space
The Spurs play at one of the slowest paces in the league. The Warriors love to run. Something's got to give.
Handling the Warriors' fast break will be the Spurs' biggest test, but it's one they've aced so far. The Warriors score nearly 21 points per game on the fast break while the Spurs only concede half of that.
In the halfcourt game, it becomes a matter of stopping Golden State's 3-point barrage. Again, San Antonio is well-equipped on that front: The Spurs allow the fewest 3-point attempts per game and hold opponents to the second lowest 3-point percentage in the league.
That's all well and good, and (on paper) San Antonio's defense looks to be perfectly constructed to thwart what the Warriors do best, but it's a whole different matter to do it in the game.
Small ball vs. Full squad
The Warriors' small-ball lineup is virtually unstoppable, and although the Spurs are ruthlessly disciplined on defense, they'll find it hard to play two bigs at once (which is their preference) when Golden State downsizes.
If and when Steve Kerr goes to his unstoppable unit, Popovich will likely counter with a wing-heavy look of his own. That puts a serious strain on the likes of Tony Parker and Patty Mills (two tiny guards) to defend on switches, however, and taking one of San Antonio's bigs off the court seriously hurts their ability to score.
The Spurs could also attempt to buck convention by trying to punish Golden State with size when they go small. So far, that's only really worked when there's an all-out athletic behemoth like Andre Drummond who's able to crash the glass with reckless abandon. The AARP crew of Tim Duncan (out with knee soreness), David West, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Boris Diaw no longer have that kind of athleticism, though.
The Spurs will have to make hay when they can. The Warriors' bench is strong, but San Antonio's historically dominant bench is outscoring opponents by 16 points per 100 possessions this season. Popovich's second unit can sustain the production of the starters (which is why San Antonio has the best point differential of all time so far), whereas Golden State's backups can, at best, maintain (but not extend) leads.