Warriors win stormy contest against the Spurs
Klay Thompson scored 27 points as the Golden State Warriors recovered from an early mauling to defeat the San Antonio Spurs 112-92 yesterday morning (Singapore time).
A stormy encounter between the two Western Conference big guns saw Warriors coach Steve Kerr lose his cool on the sidelines before Spurs counterpart Gregg Popovich was ejected late in the game.
Popovich was tossed in the fourth quarter after picking up a second technical foul following an altercation with a member of the officiating crew.
Courtside microphones picked up Popovich swearing at the referee before he was given his marching orders.
Kerr also risked ejection in the first quarter, and needed to be held back by assistant Mike Brown after he was handed a technical foul.
The tirade by the Warriors coach came as the Spurs jumped out to a 28-12 first-quarter lead.
"We might as well start every game here down 20 - other than the play-offs last year, that's been four or five straight games where that's happened," Kerr said.
"They have an edge on us with their size and strength and we weren't ready to battle early, and that's why we fell behind.
"Once we started competing and running and pushing the ball, we got into a good groove."
The reigning NBA champions gradually began chipping away at the deficit and had closed the gap to 34-24 by the end of the first quarter.
Thompson's 27 points led the scoring for the Warriors. He also had three rebounds and two assists.
THIRD IN THE WEST
Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry also weighed in with 20-point hauls as the Warriors improved to 6-3 and climbed to third in the Western Conference.
Durant scored 24 points with eight rebounds while Curry had 21 points. Draymond Green also cracked double digits with 16 points.
LaMarcus Aldridge led the scoring for San Antonio with 24 points and 10 rebounds while Kyle Anderson added 16 points.
Spanish veteran Pau Gasol was the only other Spurs player to reach double figures, with 11 points.
The defeat saw San Antonio fall to 10th with a 4-4 record.
In yesterday's other game, Damian Lillard scored a three-pointer with less than a second to go to give Portland a 113-110 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at the Moda Center.
Lillard's last-gasp bucket was part of a 32-point haul and came just moments after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had tied it up for Los Angeles with his own three-pointer with 15.5 seconds left.
- AFP
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