Game Day - Everything You Need To Know About Spurs vs. Warriors

By Ileen Jasmine - 26 Oct '16 11:38AM

The San Antonio Spurs traveled to Oakland to face the defending Western Conference champions, the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, at the Oracle Arena. The Spurs crashed the Warriors' 2016-2017 hype party, and gave them the first loss of the season, ending the game at 129-100.

Just when everybody was ready to rule out the San Antonio Spurs from the favorite NBA teams, the Duncan-less team came back with a roaring start on their first official NBA season game this year.

For the first time in 20 years, the Spurs were not lead by Tim Duncan. This time, the black and silver troop were led by Kawhi Leonard, who had a career-high 35 points on 10-of-21 shooting and a perfect 15-of-15 from the free-throw line. Leonard also added more stats in with five rebounds and five steals.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Jonathan Simmons joined in bringing the onslaught. Aldridge had 26 points, 10-of-20 shooting, and 14 rebounds(eight of those offensive). The highlight of the night was Jonathan Simmons with a career-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting; that's 3-of-5 from the three-point line.

On the other end, the Warriors were led by Stephen Curry and the newly-acquired Kevin Durant. Both superstars had a combined 53 points on 20-of-36 shooting. The Warriors struggled to flash their vintage form on offense and suffered the consequences.

Kevin Durant shut down all the critics with his solid stats of the night with 27 points, 11-of-18 shooting, and ten rebounds. Curry, on the other hand, netted 26 points on 50% shooting from the field.

With that said, Curry missed seven of his ten three-point attempts, while splash brother Klay Thompson only managed to bank one of his six long-range shots. Overall, Golden State Warriors shot 46.5 percent from the field, 21.2 percent from three and had 16 turnovers.

In an interview after the game, Kevin Durant "It was a slap in the face, woke us up a bit." Coach Steve Kerr also took responsibility for the loss, "I think our guys were embarrassed (by the performance) tonight," Kerr said, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein. "I know I was."