PLAYOFFS

Warriors overwhelm depleted Spurs, take commanding 3-0 lead

Sam Amick
USA TODAY Sports
Golden State Warriors small forward Kevin Durant (35) drives to the basket while guarded by San Antonio Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray (5) during the second half in game three of the Western conference finals of the NBA Playoffs.

SAN ANTONIO – The NBA Finals have already begun.

It may not have looked like it on Saturday night at the AT&T Center, where the San Antonio Spurs hosted Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals and the Golden State Warriors won yet again – this time by a 120-108 margin. But with these unstoppable Warriors and the revived Cleveland Cavaliers engaged in a cross-conference game of anything-you-can-do-we-can-do-better, and this collision course toward an unprecedented third consecutive meeting between two teams nearly complete, this is about two teams now.

And the mind games, in case you haven’t noticed, have long since begun.

Just one night after the Cavs won their 10th consecutive playoff game, a 130-86 shellacking of the Boston Celtics that caught the Warriors’ attention some 1,700 miles away, Golden State won for the 11th consecutive time while taking a 3-0 series lead. With the Spurs missing Kawhi Leonard for the second consecutive game because of an ankle injury, and point guard Tony Parker having been lost for the season in the last round when he suffered a quadriceps injury, the Spurs fought far more than they had in Game 2. Yet still, their fate was the same.

"We knew we were going to be able to bounce back at least emotionally today and play a better game," Manu Ginobili said. "The fact is that it is just too tough."

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On this side of the unfair conference finals fight, the Warriors were so dominant, so dangerous, that longtime NBA personnel men who watched in amazement wondered aloud how they can be beaten. They’re like the Death Star, a weapon of destruction that can only be taken down with the perfectly planned strike to the tiniest of weak spots. But this ailing Spurs team, rest assured, will not be the one to do it.

"They don’t have their best scorer," Kevin Durant said. "They rely on him. They run everything through him throughout the whole season, so taking him away it’s kind of hard to find your identity after that."

The Warriors pulled away in the third quarter, when the scoring machine they added last summer, Durant, poured in 19 of his 33 points and they led 100-88 entering the fourth. Point guard Stephen Curry added 21 points, forward Draymond Green had 10 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and center JaVale McGee – starting in place of injured big man Zaza Pachulia – had 16 points. The Warriors shot 54.8% overall.

The Spurs’ LaMarcus Aldridge, whose poor play in Game 2 had inspired critical commentary from coach Gregg Popovich, had just 18 (seven of 17 shooting) and five rebounds. Ginobili had a team-high 21 points in 18 minutes.

Asked during a terse postgame press conference whether the Spurs got what they needed out of Aldridge, Popovich kept it concise.

"Sure," he said.

The decision to sit Leonard for the second consecutive game was surprising, especially considering the historical context that was widely expected to come into play. No team has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit in a seven-game series, meaning the Spurs’ season was unofficially on the line.

But as is always a case with Popovich and his Spurs, there was a method to the madness. Their goal was to win four games – not just this one – and that meant avoiding the risk that would come with bringing him back too soon. Better to play it safe with the ankle, then, and rely on the rest of their gritty group to steal this one game without him before a possible return in Game 4.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry dribbles the ball as San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills defends during the third quarter in game three of the Western conference finals of the NBA Playoffs.

For much of the first half, it almost looked possible.

Just one game after trailing 72-44 at halftime of Game 2, the Spurs managed to fight their way into a 49-49 tie with just over four minutes left in the second quarter. Spurs guard Jonathon Simmons had continued to earn teacher’s pet honors from Popovich, while Ginobili helped fill the void in offense too. The Warriors defended nothing like the team that finished the regular season behind only the Spurs in defensive rating.

But Golden State put together a spirit-stealing 12-0 run late in the second quarter, with Durant dominating (he had a three, an alley-oop layup, a soaring right-handed dunk past Ginobili and a drive on which he was fouled) and Aldridge disappearing during that stretch. He missed a putback at the rim. He was off-target on the kind of midrange look that he can bury while blindfolded in better days. With every missed opportunity, the Spurs’ already-slim chances grew smaller.

The Warriors led 64-55 at the half.

While the Finals matchup looks destined to be the same, the road to the Cavs and Warriors getting there is not. Last postseason, the Warriors never won more than five games in a row (the final three against Oklahoma City in the conference finals, and the first two against Cleveland in the Finals) while the Cavs won their first 10 games before dropping two in the conference finals to Toronto.

This time around, the Warriors are on a different level than they were this time a year ago. In all, they have won 26 of 27 games since falling to the Spurs in San Antonio on March 11 (the star players for both teams sat in that game).

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick on Twitter @Sam_Amick.