The Golden State Warriors aren’t the type of franchise that celebrates moral victories, but they’ll probably make an exception in this instance.
In the club’s first full game without Stephen Curry, they ran out of gas and fell to the San Antonio Spurs at Chase Center, but for a change, they were competitive. They played the Spurs evenly over the course of the game’s first half before fading down the stretch.
The loss drops Golden State to 1-4 on the season.
With development the primary concern in San Francisco this season, D’Angelo Russell was assertive and took control of the team’s offense. From Steve Kerr, the rope was obvious—it’s Russell’s team now.
He ended the night with 30 points and eight assists, though he shot just 9-for-24 from the field.
Rookie Jordan Poole—who will also be given the green light this season—scored 20 points.
The Dubs allowed the Spurs to shoot just 47.3 percent from the field, which was a big improvement over the first three losses where they allowed their opponents to shoot 52 percent. If there was one major concern for the club, it was the fact that the Warriors yielded 16 offensive rebounds to San Antonio.
For the Spurs, Patty Mills led all scorers with 31 points off the bench while LaMarcus Aldridge scored 22 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the field.
The Warriors will be looking for the second win of the season when they host the Charlotte Hornets on the second night of a back-to-back on Friday night.
