Warriors start slow, then smother Spurs

SAN ANTONIO - A 22-point San Antonio Spurs lead disappeared quickly Wednesday. The Golden State Warriors, in danger of getting run out of the building early, see-saw’d all the way back in front late in the third quarter.

And to punctuate that massive swing - eventually ending in a 110-98 Warriors win - they victimized an old friend: David Lee, a former Warrior All-Star turned Spurs reserve. He went up for a needed late third-quarter layup, but was stripped by Andre Iguodala, who pushed it upcourt to Steph Curry for a runout dunk - his second slam of the season - complete with a strut.

And if that wasn’t enough, seconds later, Lee went up for a retaliation dunk on the other end, but Draymond Green, the Warrior who ripped away Lee’s starting spot three years back and helped jumpstart this franchise renaissance, met his former teammate at the summit, swatted away his dunk and then celebrated in his face.

“I loved it,” Green said. “And I know D-Lee was (angry), so I was happy about that one.”

The Warriors led by seven at the time and controlled the fourth quarter, finishing off a ninth consecutive win, sweeping a tough Texas back-to-back and grabbing a stranglehold on the Western Conference. The Warriors are now up 3.5 games on the Spurs for the conference’s top seed with seven games to play, six of those being at Oracle Arena.

“It’s a big deal,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re obviously not there yet, but we’re in a great position and if we’re able to, we’ll monitor minutes and maybe give a guy a night off to prepare for the playoffs.”

This result was quite a change from where it felt heading in the first quarter. The Spurs ripped off the game’s first 15 points and sprinted out to a commanding 29-7 lead. They were threatening to run the Warriors out of the building with a season-series sweep to pull within one in the loss column.

Golden State had plenty of first-quarter problems. The most massive: Rebounding. San Antonio brutalized them 28-13 on the glass in the first half, grabbing 11 offensive rebounds and putting in 16 second-chance points. But the Warriors defense shored up the rebounding issues after the first quarter and continued to play sturdy half-court defense - a theme in this win streak - holding San Antonio to 41 percent shooting.

“I told somebody on the bench - I think we were down 22 - I said, ‘Yo, as crazy as this may sound, they’re up 22 and I don’t think they’re dominating us,’” Green said. “It’s missed layups, turnover here, missed offensive rebound. They blitzed us, but it wasn’t where I felt we couldn’t get control of the game back.”

The turnaround began late in the first quarter, when Iguodala continued his torrid month with a seven-point outburst to bring the Warriors within 17. He hit a fadeaway at the quarter buzzer. Then, to start the second, Matt Barnes and Ian Clark nailed 3s to build the momentum.

“You get in that situation and you can say: ‘OK, that’s the night,’” Iguodala said of the early hole. “Or you can try to get back in it. Felt like we were dead, but I just tried to resuscitate us.”

Klay Thompson and Curry remained hot from deep - a combined 8-of-17 from 3 - and the Warriors climbed back to within 57-54 at halftime.

Then Golden State took over the third quarter, swarming MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard (7-of-20 shooting, 0-of-5 from 3), holding an aging Tony Parker scoreless in 24 minutes and exposing the defensive problems presented by the Spurs’ insistence on playing two bigs against Golden State’s smaller lineups.

Golden State continually shredded the slow-footed Pau Gasol and Lee in space. Lee was a game-worst minus-17 in his 16 minutes.

This offseason, the Spurs signed Gasol and Lee, in part, to replace David West, who departed for the Warriors. The Spurs crowd booed West upon entry on Wednesday night. He showed them what they are missing.

West was phenomenal defensively and perhaps had his best game as a Warrior on the offensive end. West finished with 15 points, four rebounds and five assists. He was a plus-24 in his 22 minutes, punctuated by a game-sealing corner 3-pointer with 52 seconds left (his third 3 of the season), putting the Warriors up 14.

“The story of the game,” Kerr said. “Coming back here, getting booed I noticed. But he was inspired and played a great fourth quarter. Fun to watch.”

Kevin Durant got his official four-week re-evaluation on Wednesday morning. The Warriors said his left knee has had no setbacks and he will continue to ramp up activity, but Durant will be out at least another week.