Rewatch Stream: Spurs Exorcism, Jan 25 2016
One of my favorite games re-broadcast on NBCSN at 8pm
For those of you who can’t watch this, I have a very special link at the end.
This was a super memorable game for me, which I couldn’t fully enjoy because I had a date so we watched the game on the tiny TV at Eureka! in Berkeley as I recall, but the low-resolution didn’t dampen the wonder of seeing the Warriors stomp the Spurs. That was the first moment I thought the Warriors had a real chance to hit 73 wins.
That night I wrote Explain One Play: Stephen Curry's Giddyup Exorcism 3:
That was the most satisfying regular season Warriors win I've ever experienced. I don't think you can draw conclusions about the future Spurs-Warriors games, regular season or playoffs. We all know there will be adjustments and injuries and strategy, etc. I know Tim Duncan was out, and he would have stopped a few of those backdoor cut layups. We didn't see Kawhi full-time on Curry to force Klay to beat them. I know the Spurs won't be discouraged or depressed. They will respond with scientific ruthless perfectionism.
I don't care.
If the Warriors ever start dominating the matchup with the Spurs, we can start complaining about how easy the victory was. This game was of extreme importance to the Warriors. The Spurs are the big daddy that the Warriors could never overcome. The W's lost last year's series and were dominated in the losses defensively. The Spurs pressured the initial passes and forced the Warriors to devolve the offense into simple Curry ISOs and pick and rolls, which got eaten alive. The Spurs have been whipping the Warriors ever since Tim Duncan showed up. And the 2013 Playoffs were even worse, because the Warriors had the element of surprise, but (let's skip the painful details, please) if you strike at a king, you must kill the king. Once the Spurs turned on all engines, the series was over.
This game showed that when the Warriors play their game, the Spurs can be an ordinary team. This isn't any kind of guarantee of future results. But it was an exorcism of past ghosts. I don't think the W's will ever be intimidated again by past failures.
We’ll see how long this link is live. This is a stream of the entire game:
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