Warriors survive the Spurs, stay alive for In-Season Tournament: Five observations

SAN FRANCISCO — Here are five observations from the Golden State Warriors’ 118-112 home win over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, pushing them to 8-9 on the season and keeping them alive in the inaugural In-Season Tournament.

1. The regular-season relevance

Steph Curry came curling off a screen in closing time and found himself staring at Victor Wembanyama in isolation. As Curry later mentioned, the Warriors don’t have any 7-foot-4 scout-teamers. There’s an adjustment period. Wembanyama whacked one of his floaters off the backboard earlier in the game.

“I don’t think he jumped,” Curry said.

So Steph hit the rookie with one of his patented relocation moves. He dribbled around him into the paint, passed up another floater that Wembanyama probably would’ve blocked from behind, passed it out to Chris Paul and then dashed away from Wembanyama to the right wing.

Paul, who had 10 more assists on Friday, recognized the Curry scamper and pinged it back before Wembanyama could recover. Here is the made 3 that felt like the dagger.

That 3 put the Warriors up 15 with 2:48 left. There were wobbly moments from the Warriors prior, but that’s still blowout territory in the NBA, exactly what a playoff team should do at home to a Spurs team that entered having lost 10 straight. They’d essentially taken care of business.

But nothing in the last stretch of games has been easy for the Warriors. They flipped into meltdown mode again and turned it over on five consecutive possessions, handing the Spurs a rapid 11-0 run that brought them within four points with 1:01 left.

Curry hit the required free throws to the seal the win, but that mini stretch — which included a couple of illegal screens, Curry stepping out of bounds, a backcourt violation and a Dario Šarić technical foul at the wrong time — turned what should’ve been a workmanlike win into a dramatic and slightly uninspiring escape job.

“Yeah, 24 turnovers. Wow,” Šarić said when checking the box score for the Warriors’ team total. “I didn’t expect we were going to have that big of a number, which is like way above what we should have.”

There was plenty the Warriors did right. Curry got back on track after his first cold shooting night of the season and scored 35 points on 11-of-20 shooting. He made seven 3s; the Warriors made 19 as a team. They had 35 assists on 40 makes. They turned the Spurs over 19 times. They only gave up 12 free-throw attempts after giving up 52 in Phoenix on Wednesday.

But they still can’t seem to shake the unevenness. Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson shot a combined 7-for-21, adding to their cold starts. Curry had six of the team’s 24 turnovers. Plus, the Spurs had 15 offensive rebounds.

2. The In-Season Tournament stakes

That late-game Spurs run also delivered the Warriors a more difficult path to Las Vegas. This was the third of the Warriors’ four In-Season Tournament pool games. A loss would’ve eliminated them from contention. The win kept them alive, but point differential matters.

This is how it stands entering Tuesday night. The Warriors, Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves are the only three teams still alive in Group C. If the Timberwolves lose in Minneapolis on Tuesday, the stage is set. It’ll be Warriors at Kings in Sacramento, and the winner will sit atop Group C and move on to the quarterfinals. They should know the result of the Timberwolves game by the end of the first quarter.

In Minnesota does win, that sets up the possibility of a three-way tie at 3-1, bringing into play point differential. To survive in that scenario, the Warriors would need to beat the Kings by 13 or more points — which is where that late-game trouble with the Spurs could really sting.

If the Warriors were to escape Group C, they are lined up to likely face either the New Orleans Pelicans or Houston Rockets in the quarterfinals, presumably in New Orleans or Houston unless they really blow the Kings out.

“We’re trying to advance,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “We talked about it in the timeout; five minutes left, I think we’re up 12, and I reminded them let’s keep our foot on the gas. Obviously didn’t work, though.”

3. Šarić again

Dario Šarić made four 3s and scored 20 points off the Warriors’ bench in 26 minutes. He’s scored at least 20 in all three In-Season Tournament games. He also added seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.

“We gave him a hard (free agency) pitch,” Kerr said. “He asked me, ‘How much am I going to play? Am I going to play?’ He knew this was a year he slipped through the cracks, free agency-wise, and needed to be in a good spot to show what he could do. This is definitely the spot. He’s playing so well. He’s clearly a player who is going to command a big salary next summer.”

4. Draymond returning

Draymond Green’s five-game suspension is over. The Warriors went 2-3 in his absence. Green traveled with the team to Phoenix and played some three-on-three while there. He scrimmaged this weekend and will get in two full practices on Sunday and Monday before the Warriors play Tuesday in Sacramento.

Green’s return creates some rotation questions in the frontcourt. It’s difficult to slash Šarić’s minutes, considering the way he is playing. It’s possible that Kerr starts Green next to Šarić and brings Kevon Looney off the bench, depending on the matchup. But Green, Looney and Šarić all will get plenty of court time, leaving a logjam ahead of Jonathan Kuminga.

Kuminga didn’t explode in Green’s five-game absence, but he did end it on a positive note. After a scoreless, quiet first three quarters, Kuminga opened the fourth against the Spurs with a surge, making a 3, leaking out for a transition dunk, drilling a midrange jumper and finishing two acrobatic slashes at the rim. He had 12 points in six fourth-quarter minutes.

“That’s what we need from him,” Kerr said. “We need to feel his force and athleticism.”

5. A couple other rotation tweaks

Kerr made a starting-lineup change on Friday, going with Moses Moody in place of Paul. Moody still only played 17 minutes; Paul played 29 off the bench. That starting spot is ticketed for Green on Tuesday.

“Just wanted to change some of the combinations,” Kerr said. “We were looking to get some different guys together and some apart.”

One of the combinations the Warriors want to see more is Curry with Gary Payton II, who returned from an ankle sprain and played 19 minutes, mostly with Curry.

“When he’s on the floor with Steph, that’s where some of the off-ball stuff just happens, because Gary recognizes it as well as anybody,” Kerr said. “You’ll see him dribble at Steph and get him a hand-back, or you’ll see him running free and he’ll go screen for him. He’ll set a screen and dive, and Steph will hit him in the pocket, like he did for the one when he got the layup. There’s definitely a lot of value in playing Gary with Steph, and we’re trying to do that more.”

(Photo of Stephen Curry and Victor Wembanyama: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)