2018 NBA Playoffs: Grading each first round playoff series 

Golden State Warriors vs San Antonio Spurs: C

Manu Ginobili turned back the clock yet again

In what turned out to be a defensive slugfest of gigantic proportions, the Golden State Warriors' superior all-round talent helped them make light work of a Spurs team which has missed its best player for essentially the entire 2017-18 campaign. While the Warriors were themselves missing their baby-faced assassin, they went into this series as heavy favorites and played like it.

The San Antonio Spurs were subjected to some intense defensive pressure in game 1, and they caved in pretty quickly. For the rest of the series, coach Pop and Ettore Messina tried a variety of adjustments which led to the games being better contested, but the Warriors broke through in the second halves of games 2 & 3 to put the game beyond reach for the Spurs.

The Spurs held off the Warriors in their first elimination game - Game 4 - on the back of a vintage performance by Manu Ginobili. It was a great game in the midst of a depressing series for Spurs fans, as they held the Warriors to sub-40 shooting from the field - possibly the toughest task in the NBA.

Save for Danny Green, nearly every player emerged from this season with untarnished credentials and had a significant role to play in much of their team's successes.

Green had trouble shooting the ball, and the effort of chasing Klay Thompson around for the length of the ballgame did have its toll on the 3-and-D specialist - who will bounce back next season with the return of his swingman partner The Klaw.