Warriors vs. Spurs 2 Preview: Wash away the ugliness

Last night was ugly. Let’s try a new one.

The Golden State Warriors lost 105-100 to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, in a game that was both ugly and exciting. Now they get less than 24 hours to wash it off, regroup, and do it again.

The deets

Who: Golden State Warriors (12-12) vs. San Antonio Spurs (14-10)

When: 5:30 p.m. PT

Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas

TV: NBC Sports Bay Area

Projected starting lineups:

Warriors: Stephen Curry, Kelly Oubre Jr., Andrew Wiggins, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Draymond Green
Spurs: Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson, DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl

Last results:

Warriors: Lost to the Spurs 105-100 — 2-3 in their last 5 games
Spurs: Beat the Warriors 105-100 — 2-3 in their last 5 games

The story

How do the Dubs bounce back? They had every chance to win the game on Monday, even leading by double figures in the first half. But they shot themselves in the foot time and time again, with reckless turnover after reckless turnover, and it all culminated in a horrific yet fittingly poetic ending: Draymond Green hoisting a 40-footer with 8 seconds left on the shot clock.

It was deflating, yet the Dubs did a lot of really good things. The question is: can they build on the latter, instead of getting brought down by the former?

Players to watch

Warrior to watch: Steph Curry.

Curry was tremendous on Monday, with 32 points on just 17 shots.

The problem was the “on just 17 shots” part. During Saturday’s explosion, Curry took as many field goal attempts as the rest of the starting lineup combined. On Monday, Curry only took one more shot than Kelly Oubre Jr., and only six more than Draymond Green.

Curry needs to be taking more shots, whether by being more aggressive, or by his teammates doing a better job getting him the ball.

Spur to watch: Dejounte Murray.

Let’s take a look at Murray’s stat line from Monday: 27 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 8 steals, 10-for-19 shooting.

My goodness.

Now that Dub Nation has had a rude introduction to just how good Murray can be, it’s time for the team to figure out how to slow him down.

Matchup to watch: The bench vs. Patty Mills.

The Warriors bench has struggled in a lot of games this year, and watching San Antonio, it’s hard not to think about what the Dubs would look like with a player like Patty Mills on the bench.

Mills didn’t have the best game on Monday, but he did have more three-pointers than the entire Warriors bench. That can’t be the case again.

Keys to victory

• Limit the turnovers
• Make Steph Curry the main attraction, by a long shot
• Avoid lackluster bench performances
• Have a solid game from Andrew Wiggins

Revenge? Go for it, Dubs.