Big Game Preview: Golden State Warriors vs San Antonio Spurs

Through eight games, the Golden State Warriors have only played two teams that are currently under .500 - Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans. They played the Houston Rockets on opening night and last week they played against a couple of Eastern Conference Playoff teams in the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards. Now, they are all set for a Conference Finals rematch against the wily veteran San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs, in their seven games, have only played one Western Conference team when they faced the Minnesota Timberwolves for their home opener.

Contests between these two teams in the recent years have been entertaining, to say the least. Whether it was their regular season encounters or their hard-fought Playoff battles. So without further ado, let's dive into it:

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Golden State Warriors

Golden State Warriors: WWWLW

The Warriors' recent form might be 4-1 but they've been far from clinical to start this season. The Mavericks, at the bottom of the West, weren't much competition for them and Golden State has always had the better of the LA Clippers.

The Warriors, a team known to blow away their opponents, even the Playoff ones, needed late-game offensive explosions against the Raptors and Wizards to win. However, they didn't have it in them to do it a third straight time, losing to the Detroit Pistons at home.

San Antonio Spurs: WWLLL

The Spurs have been riding LaMarcus Aldridge through this young season and it's had mixed results so far. They started the season 4-0 but have lost three consecutive games since. Maybe they get a pass, as all of their three recent losses have come against East teams that are currently at the top of that Conference - Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers. Either way, the point being, they aren't riding any sort of momentum heading into this game.

Strengths

The Warriors are 12-men deep but so are the Spurs.

Golden State Warriors - Talent and depth

The Warriors have such a large margin for error because of the level of talent they have at their disposal on the roster. Not to mention how deep they have gotten with their offseason signings like - Nick Young and Omri Casspi. The wing shooters only add to the already strong bench that Golden State had. They've been able to escape games with wins because their superstars were able to rest and then come up big in end-of-game situations.

San Antonio Spurs - Discipline and depth

San Antonio has always been known as a franchise to have a very effective, efficient and productive bench. But that's largely in part due to the system the team plays with rather than the talent of any given player on the team. Each player is able to contribute positively because he knows his role and plays that to perfection in the system. With their superstar Kawhi Leonard out, they'll need every player to play their role perfectly and beat the Warriors as a team.

Weaknesses

Kawhi Leonard's absence has hurt the Spurs' offense the last three games.

Golden State Warriors - Turnovers

The Golden State Warriors are 26th in turnovers with an average of 17.4 per game. They mark of a great team is that they don't beat themselves. If the average isn't bad enough, in their loss to the Pistons, the Warriors committed a season-worst 25 turnovers. They shot 57.1% from the field that game as compared to 46.2% by Detroit but they had as many as 16 lesser shot attempts which led to the eventual loss.

San Antonio Spurs - Lack of offense

The Spurs are one superstar short, so there's just been a lack of offense irrespective of the rise in LaMarcus Aldridge's numbers. They rank 25th in the league in offensive rating, failing to score more than 95 points in all of their three losses. Leonard averaged 25.5 points and 3.5 assists last season, clearly, the team hasn't found a way to replace that. Mind you, any team would struggle to replace that. The fact that they have a record above .500 (4-3) given their current scenario is a miracle.

X-Factor

Draymond Green

Golden State Warriors - Draymond Green

Draymond Green is part of the Warriors' core that has been to three straight NBA Finals, which can be mentally and physically taxing. Often times this year, the behavior, play, demeanor and mentality of Green has determined how the Warriors play this season. His playmaking from the forward/center spot is key to how the team functions and what's more vital is his shot-making. It's not a great number and it's also a small sample size but when he makes around 25% of his shots or more, the Warriors win. Against the Rockets on opening night, he shot 33.3% from the field but missed the fourth quarter due to knee issues.

San Antonio Spurs - Their starting line-up

Again missing Kawhi Leonard impacts this category as well. In their recent losses, the Spurs' starting line-up has just not shown up. In fact, in some of these games, more than a couple of reserves have had a better outing than few from the starting five. LaMarcus Aldridge is a star so he can't be an X-factor but he's got to show up every game. There's no room for an off-day as the team funnels and runs its offense through him as much as possible.

Prediction - Warriors win comfortably

GSW should cruise to a win

This game is in the Warriors' hands. It's their game to lose. The talent deficit is just far too much for them to drop this one. Unless Golden State sits down to dig a pit for themselves, this game should be quite easy for them to take care of.

For years, almost decades, Golden State hadn't won a game in San Antonio, before they finally did defeat the hosts in April of 2016. With that omen too out of the way, there should be no pressure on their minds.

A blowout or comfortable win over a team like the Spurs also builds some much needed positive momentum for the Dubs, something Stephen Curry and crew haven't been able to build so far this season.