Warriors’ Durant and Thompson sink Spurs

LOS ANGELES: Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson handed San Antonio a painful shooting lesson as Golden State took a grip on their Western Conference playoff duel.

Durant and Thompson both weighed in with 30-point games as the Warriors powered to a 116-101 win that puts the NBA champions 2-0 up in their best-of-seven series.

The Warriors – still missing the injured talisman Stephen Curry – outclassed a physical San Antonio from three-point range in a devastating display of scoring on Monday.

Golden State made 15 of 31 attempts from three-point range, contrasting sharply with San Antonio, who could only muster four from 28 attempts.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich pinpointed his team’s failure to threaten from distance as the principal factor in the loss.

“The ball has to go in the basket,” Popovich said.

“That’s the difference in the ball game. They shot 50% of threes; we made 14%, four of 28 or something. That’s tough to overcome.

“You’ve got to make shots. And it’s been like that the entire year on the road for us, for whatever reason. And it really showed up tonight. That made it very difficult.”

San Antonio started strongly, with LaMarcus Aldridge – who finished with 34 points – driving the Spurs forward as they shaded the first period 25-23.

The visitors continued to rally in the second quarter and had moved into a 53-47 at half-time.

But Golden State’s relentless pressure and offensive variety inevitably began to tell in the second half.

Durant finished with 32 points, six rebounds and six assists while Thompson had 31 points with five assists.