SAN ANTONIO _ The Warriors prioritized rest over a standings race on Saturday, all but conceding an important game to the Spurs when they announced plans to sit all their healthy All-Stars in San Antonio.
But a sliver of hope emerged: the Spurs were forced to sit the injured LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard. It would be B-Teamers verse mostly B-Teamers, a nightmare for ABC's national broadcast but a potential opening for Golden State's bench squad to steal a giveaway game, if they played well.
But they didn't. In the Warriors' 107-85 blowout loss in San Antonio, most of their role players _ thrust into larger roles _ looked unready for the stage.
The younger guys were the most disappointing. Patrick McCaw, who has actually played well as a fill-in starter for the injured Kevin Durant, was expected to shoulder a bulk of the scoring load on Saturday night. He took 11 shots, the second most of his career. But he didn't make any.
McCaw bumbled a couple contested layups, bricked five 3s and had a sixth 3 blocked into the fourth row by a flying Danny Green. McCaw's 11 misses, without a make, was one miss short of an NBA record for most attempts without a conversion.
But perhaps more disappointing was the performance of Kevon Looney. The Warriors' first-round pick from two years ago has struggled in brief spurts this season and, over the past couple months, fallen behind James Michael McAdoo in the pecking order and completely out of the rotation.
But Saturday gave Looney a chance to start at power forward for the resting Draymond Green. In his 14 minutes _ so few, in part, because Steve Kerr plucked him early in the third quarter after some glaring struggles _ Looney only made one of his eight shots.
On one particular sequence, he was beaten to a loose ball by a hustling Spur and failed to get back in the play. But because of that, after a Warrior steal, he was out in front for a transition opportunity. The ball was kicked ahead to Looney, who then clanged a dunk attempt off the back rim.
There were some bright spots. Ian Clark, who has been solid of late in his brief stretches off the bench, scored a career-high 36 points, becoming the first Warrior reserve to put up more than 30 since Jordan Crawford in April of 2014. Matt Barnes was solid, hitting a few 3s and leading the team with five assists. Zaza Pachulia had a double-double.
Rookie Damian Jones, recalled from the D-League earlier in the day, got some needed experience and even had a couple encouraging plays: a reverse layup and a couple defensive stops on a posting Pau Gasol.
But, in general, it was a sleepy performance from a tired team, playing its eighth game in an eighth city in the past 13 days, hoping to get _ but certainly not receiving _ a boost from its seldom-used players.
With the loss, the Warriors are now only a half-game up on the Spurs for the West's top seed. They are tied in the loss column. And, because San Antonio beat them on opening night in Oracle, they have captured the head-to-head tiebreaker, should the two end the season with the same record. They meet again in San Antonio later in March.
But from here, the schedule turns for the weary Warriors. They return to the Bay Area for two days off, then a game against the lottery-bound Sixers, another day-off, then another home game against the lottery-bound Magic, before finishing a three-game homestand against the Bucks. Eleven of their final 16 games are in Oracle Arena.
Patty Mills led the Spurs with 21 points.
