Spurs hope they’ve learned from the Steph Curry clinic
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The Spurs left the AT&T Center after Tuesday’s 114-91 loss to Golden State and went home, ostensibly, to pack.
With a seven-game rodeo road trip beginning Friday in Atlanta, the team will not be back inside its home arena until Feb. 27.
The best thing about the Spurs’ upcoming itinerary might be who is not on it.
“We’re not going to see Stephen Curry on this road trip,” point guard Dejounte Murray said.
After back-to-back nights of chasing the Warriors star in circles around the AT&T Center, the Spurs could probably use the break from him.
Curry posted consecutive 32-point nights against them, and triggered a back-cut, read-and-react Golden State offense that remains as difficult to cover as any in the NBA.
The Spurs did well to forge a split of the two games, using a stellar second-half performance to beat the Warriors 105-100 in the first game Monday.
“You couldn’t ask for a better clinic,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Those guys play so smart. They move so well. We made a lot of mistakes based on how clever they are, but the competitiveness was there.”
If nothing else, the two games against Curry and the Warriors provide something of a primer for how the Spurs must approach their rodeo trip opener.
It is true they will not see Curry on the trek, which mostly takes them east of the Mississippi River.
In Atlanta, however, the Spurs will match up against a Curry starter kit in Trae Young.
The 22-year-old point guard — an All-Star in his own right — boasts many of Curry’s most unguardable characteristics.
Like Curry, Young is apt to shoot from any ZIP code. He is deadly using screens to free himself and creative with the ball in the paint.
Heading into the Hawks’ game at Dallas on Wednesday, Young was averaging 26.7 points and 9.2 assists. He had scored at least 20 points in 10 consecutive games, including two games of 38, one of 41 and one of 43.
“We just came off playing one of the greatest humans of all time,” Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan said. “We have to do it again in some shape or form dealing with Trae.”
The totality of the Warriors’ offense proved a worthy test for the Spurs, which they survived with mixed results.
In Monday’s game, the Spurs limited Golden State to 23 points or less in each of the final three quarters, rallying from 14 points behind for the victory.
Tuesday, the Spurs were solid except for a third-quarter meltdown that saw the Warriors outscore them 36-20 and blow open a game that was tied at halftime.
Curry scored 16 points during Golden State’s third-quarter explosion.
“He’s great, great, great,” Murray said. “It’s hard to game-plan against him. He moves so well without the ball. With the ball, he’s so shifty and crafty. He knows how to get his team involved.”
Over the two games in San Antonio, Curry was 21 of 37 from the field, including 10 of 21 from 3-point range. Three of those 3-pointers came from outside of 30 feet.
The attention that must be paid to Curry on all 82 feet of the hardwood makes guarding the rest of the Warriors difficult.
At one point during Monday’s game, Golden State scored five consecutive baskets on dunks and layups — either in transition or when players slipped behind the Spurs’ defense in the half court.
The key to defending Curry and the Warriors might be the same as the key to defending Young and the Hawks.
“You’ve got to communicate for 48 minutes of a basketball game,” Murray said. “With Stephen Curry, you’ve got to be aware of him. But the rest of the team is cutting, setting screens, getting themselves open.
“It’s just hard to guard. If we communicate, we have a better chance.”
That will be the goal as the Spurs travel to Atlanta on Friday to face a player 10 years younger than Curry and almost as lethal.
Young, the former Oklahoma star tied for 10th in the league in scoring, has logged seven games this season of at least 25 points and 10 assists, most in the Eastern Conference.
As if defending Young wasn’t difficult enough, he is also adept at drawing fouls. He had attempted at least 11 free throws in eight of his previous 10 games entering Wednesday.
“He just gives us a multi-layered, multi-level, attack mentality,” Atlanta coach Lloyd Pierce said.
The Spurs, of course, are all too familiar with the havoc the Hawks’ pint-sized point guard can wreak.
In the Spurs’ last trip to Atlanta, on Nov. 5 of last season, Young dropped 29 points and 13 assists in a 108-100 Hawks victory.
Two months later, Young pumped in 31 points with nine assists as Atlanta pulled out a 121-120 win on Kevin Huerter’s corner 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left.
It marked the Hawks’ first win in San Antonio since 1996-97 and gave Atlanta its first season sweep of the Spurs since that same season.
Having spent 96 minutes this week trailing Curry around the AT&T Center, give or take, the Spurs have a sense of what they will be up against once they make it to Atlanta.
A Curry stand-in awaits.
“Trae is definitely going to be a handful,” DeRozan said. “The young talent they have there, you’ve got to give them nothing but respect. It’s a challenge we look forward to.”
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN