The San Antonio Spurs came out on fire to start game one of their Western Conference Finals matchup against the Golden State Warriors. Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge were doing some great inside-out scoring to put the Warriors backs against the wall heading into halftime. But in a matter of five minutes, Kawhi Leonard went down with an ankle injury twice and the Warriors mounted a huge 25 point comeback. The Warriors take game one over the Spurs, 113-111.
The Spurs had a twenty point lead at halftime over the Warriors who were coming off a week of rest following their second-round sweep of the Utah Jazz. The Spurs, just two days removed from their wild game six blowout of the Houston Rockets, had a seemingly healthy Kawhi Leonard back in the starting lineup. But the third quarter of this contest changed everything, possibly beyond just this game.
Kawhi Leonard went down twice in the same quarter with an ankle injury. The second time, he landed on the foot of Zaza Pachulia and left for the remainder of the game. Aside from the questions on the internet concerning Zaza Pachulia being a dirty player or not, there were even more questions for the Spurs. Who is going to step up and stop the bleeding? It looked like LaMarcus Aldridge would be the man to do it but he didn’t quite live up to expectations.
Stephen Curry exploded for 40 points during the game but he really got the Warriors comeback going in the third quarter and then Kevin Durant helped close up shop in the fourth as he dropped 34 points in the game. The Warriors went on a 16-0 run immediately after Leonard left the court and ended the game on a 58-33 run to close it out.
Kawhi Leonard only played 24 minutes but scored 26 points, grabbed eight rebounds and handed out three assists. LaMarcus Aldridge didn’t have a bad game overall scoring 28 points and grabbing eight rebounds but late in the game, he came up flat. Manu Ginobili and Jonathon Simmons both came off the bench to play 26 minutes, Manu scored 17 points and Simmons put up 12. Zaza Pachulia was the only other member of the Warriors to score in double figures putting up 11 points for the game.
