Why the Spurs aren't making much of the win they had to have against the Warriors

SAN ANTONIO – On a set of televisions hanging inside the San Antonio Spurs' practically empty pregame locker room Saturday was an image that served as a harbinger for later that evening at AT&T Center. A blurred Kobe Bryant, frozen by the pause button, was walking off the court after the Los Angeles Lakers' stunning dismantling of the Golden State Warriors earlier this month, when the retiring legend encouraged his teammates to "beat the [expletive] out of" the defending champions.

The Spurs were perhaps searching for inspiration or clues from the previous team to defeat the Warriors. But the common thread between that game and San Antonio's more intense 87-79 win Saturday night is that both games required the absences of Andre Iguodala and Stephen Curry's video game jump shot, anomalies the Spurs can't expect to count on if they meet the Warriors down the road in a seven-game series. And for that reason, the Spurs remained measured in victory, refusing to provide any kind of motivation for a Golden State team that has feasted on slights – perceived or otherwise – throughout this historic campaign.

Spurs guard Danny Green became that rare player to swat a Curry 3-point attempt and later hurdled Tony Parker to slap a Curry layup attempt in the opposite direction. But Green had a better block reserved for after the game, when a reporter asked if San Antonio sent a message in shutting down the league's reigning most valuable player.

"You send a message to that guy, you never know what he's going to come back with," Green said.

The Spurs won a game they simply had to have if they were going to enter this postseason with much confidence about their chances of beating the Warriors. Losing at home when Golden State was on the end of a back-to-back – and sixth game in nine nights – and missing three of its top seven rotation players (Iguodala, Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli) would've conceded the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference and possibly damaged the Spurs' psyche as it relates to the only team out-juggernauting them this season.

While the Spurs having doubts about their chances sounds completely absurd for a team that has won five NBA championships yet never staged a better regular season, that's how ridiculous the Warriors have been in leaving the rest of the league dumbfounded and obsessed with finding a way to stop them – or at least escaping with their dignity. The Warriors have LeBron James flummoxed and sending out cryptic messages on social media. They have Kevin Durant wondering if Oklahoma City will ever be good enough and if it will be better to join the Warriors in the Bay Area next summer in free agency.

Before establishing that they could counter small ball with Boris Diaw instead of Tim Duncan and make the Warriors uncomfortable and bored by playing at a slower pace, the Spurs were also without any definitive answers. Manu Ginobili sounded helpless, as if the Warriors were some unsolvable riddle, after that 30-point bludgeoning when the teams met on Jan. 25 in Oakland. Saturday's win didn't leave Ginobili under any delusions that the Spurs are suddenly better than Golden State.

"Hard to say that it's even. I think they have a better record, they are playing unbelievable basketball and they played [Friday]. That's an advantage," Ginobili said. "They were missing a few guys, so of course we liked the win. We enjoyed it. I think we did a great job. But I don't think this is the type of team we're going to see if we face them in the playoffs. I think we have to be very humble because of the situation, the way they got here. With all that, they are a very tough team to beat."

Any other year, the Spurs would be running away from the other 29 teams and getting praise for their ability to redefine themselves around Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge after years of binging on the The Big Three. The Warriors have made San Antonio an afterthought and placed the franchise in its preferred home away from the spotlight.

The Spurs still have a respectable fear for the Warriors. They defended Curry better than any previous team, using Parker, Green and Leonard to harass him up higher than usual and rarely surrendering those small crevices that Curry often exploits to release his jumper. Curry was atypically low energy and even found himself switching shoes at halftime from a Carolina Panthers blue pair to a black and yellow pair. The choice in footwear made no difference.

"I didn't allow us to get comfortable. I've got to play a lot better, manage the game a lot better, especially if certain shots that I normally make aren't falling," Curry said. "You've got to be able to adjust, not lose confidence at all, but adjust and find different ways to impact the game. So it's a good learning experience."

The Warriors lost but were no less confident, considering that they played poorly, got a rare mediocre performance from Curry and remained in position to steal the win in the final minutes. Draymond Green, the Warriors' resident supplier of bulletin-board material, said the Spurs played better than in the previous meeting, "which shouldn't have been that hard."

Then, Draymond Green spoke about the Warriors' desire to get 73 wins this season, holding on to his swagger in defeat: "I want that pressure. I like the pressure, so I'm not going to shy away from saying we want the record, because absolutely we want it, and we're going after it."

San Antonio has actually been the Warriors' greatest ally in their pursuit of history, a constant presence hovering, pushing them to avoid complacency. The Warriors are one game ahead of the Chicago Bulls' 72-win pace in 1995-96 and have been ahead of that pace since Feb. 20 – a full month.

Diaw suggested that Golden State is the next progression of those fun-and-gun Phoenix Suns teams that the Spurs always found a way to torment in the postseason. San Antonio has been responsible for ending the Warriors' season once before – in a 2013 series that left subtle hints that Curry And His Merry Crew were coming – and coach Gregg Popovich will have to find a defensive strategy that tops anything he unleashed on the Suns to beat Golden State four times.

Fans will likely have to wait until the Warriors and Spurs meet when it matters to have a sense of what to make of these two teams going head-to-head. Duncan's absence was used as an explanation for the first game being so lopsided but Duncan came off the bench and rarely played in the rematch. Aldridge was a ghost in the first meeting, after which he shut down his social media accounts, but slowed down and dominated the smallish, Bogut-less Warriors in his revenge.

The two meetings in April probably won't mean much of anything. The Spurs are three games behind Golden State for the league's best record with 13 games remaining and might already be shifting into playoff preparation with Popovich looking to rest his elderly stars. And, neither coach would try to show his hand in case the teams hook up for more meaningful games in May. San Antonio got the one win it needed but kept its importance in perspective.

"Whoever wins this game isn't automatically advancing to the Finals," Leonard said. "It's another game. Just trying to get better, each and every game going into the playoffs."