The Warriors let the Spurs and everyone know who's in control

OAKLAND -- No one does buzzkill like the Golden State Warriors. Every time they've faced a challenge during the regular season they've delivered a knockout blow so convincing that it makes us wonder why we'd ever question them in the first place. It takes a special kind of team to rise to the moment like this time and again, but that's what the Warriors are and they turned the game of the year into just another January rout.

No one beats the Spurs like this. Hell, no one beats anyone like this, especially not in a game of this magnitude with the whole sports world scrambling to find NBA TV on their cable system. So, what kind of a statement did the Warriors make in their 120-90 win?

"None at all," Draymond Green said. "At this point, what's going to be made out of this is really too much. Some people are going to try to say we made a statement. It's going to be too much and (not enough). People are going to try to say we made a statement. Then they're going to say they didn't have Tim Duncan. When at the end of the day, neither one of them matters.

"They're still a good team without Timmy. And this win means nothing but one in the win column. I think at the end of the day we came out and did what we wanted to do as far as impose our will on the game, kind of get the game at our tempo and a huge part of that was getting it done on the defensive end and getting stops. So no, nothing major. We won the game by a good margin but that does not make them any less of a team than what they are. They're a great basketball team and we just had a good night."

At least Pop had jokes.

"We almost got them," Gregg Popovich deadpanned. "My opening comment here will be I'm just glad my general manager wasn't in the locker room because it might have gotten me fired."

No chance of that happening, of course, and to hear Golden State coach Steve Kerr tell it, there's no chance that result will have much effect on anything down the line.

"It won't mean anything if we play San Antonio in the playoffs," Kerr said. "I don't see them worrying about one game. Maybe that would be the case with some teams but not the Spurs. They've seen everything. They've seen too many games, too many situations to be worried about one loss."

True, but there were a number of things to be at least concerned about from the Spurs' perspective and the Duncan factor loomed large. They sent him home with a sore knee after their game in Los Angeles, which was the first sign that this heavily anticipated matchup wouldn't live up to its billing, and there are two ways to go with this.

Perhaps it was just another case of Pop being Pop, deflating some of the hype surrounding a regular season game by resting one of his key players. It's not like he hasn't done it before, most famously when he sat out all of his Big 3 for a TNT game against Miami back when it was a Finals rematch. Or, Duncan is 39 years old with more than 1,600 games and 56,000 minutes including playoffs during his career. If he doesn't have a sore knee at this point, that'd be news.

"Geez I just don't know what to do with myself," Pop said before the game. "Being concerned about things doesn't really do much because I have nothing to do with when his knee is going to get better or not get better. Being concerned is a waste of time."

Be that as it may, one can also make the argument that sitting out Duncan was a solid bit of strategic gamesmanship on Pop's part because the No. 1 thing all of us wanted to see was how the Spurs' big-man lineup would fare against Golden State's smallball lineup of death. Why give away any secrets in a regular season game? (Pop's protégé Mike Budenholzer unleashed a trap-heavy scheme in a game against Cleveland last year that was fascinating, but also kind of killed the element of surprise when they met again in the conference finals.)

And even Pop had to concede that this game meant a little something extra, if only a little.

"Why not? Two teams with the best record. Playing it up would seem to be logical to me," Popovich said. "From our perspective we have to take it a little bit differently because we've got a lot of games and that sort of thing. But from your guys' perspective yeah, it's a big deal. You feel different going against a team that's the best team in the league. I've got butterflies in my gut and excited about the game. I don't feel that way every night."

What we know is that without Duncan around to protect the rim, the Warriors attacked the basket fearlessly. LaMarcus Aldridge is a wonderful player, but the Spurs defense isn't the same without Timmy running the back line. Whenever the Spurs pressured the perimeter, the Golden State wings cut backdoor and there were layups galore to be had, often thanks to brilliant passes from Green.

"If anybody overplays you, our guys are taught, just cut. Just cut backdoor," Kerr said. "The next guy will fill the spot. Keep moving. That's a basic concept of basketball but you've got to have guys who understand it, who makes plays. We're lucky to have this roster full of talented guys who are unselfish and committed to each other."

There was much more to it than just Duncan's absence. Despite giving up almost half a foot and several pounds, Green completely neutralized Aldridge, forcing him into an invisible five points on just 2-for-9 shooting. When Green wasn't forcing him off his spot on the block, he was shutting down his perimeter game. It was a magnificent defensive effort that was so thorough, Green actually had to ask out of the game at one point, which never happens.

"Everywhere he moved I tried to keep a body on him because I know once he gets in a rhythm he's tough to stop," Green said. "It was kind of in that period that I switched to Kawhi (Leonard) and tried to hawk him for a few plays and after that I was dead."

Leonard, meanwhile, had a quiet 16 points. He also took his turn guarding Steph Curry and if the enduring moment of last year's matchup was Leonard ripping the ball from Curry at half court, the lasting image of this one was Curry going supernova for 37 points on 20 shots in just 28 minutes. Kerr was asked if he did anything special to get Curry going to which he replied, "Nope."

"I knew coming into tonight that he was excited about this game," Green said. "He took the game over for us. That's usually what he does for us and he really did it tonight at a major level. I knew yesterday he was ready to go. And he came out and showed that. When he hit that three from like 37 feet out, it confirmed it."

What we're left with then is a different kind of question than the one we had coming into this game. It's not whether the Spurs can match up with the Warriors, it's whether anyone can take this team down when they're focused and playing at full strength. Kerr called them "a pretty cocky group."

"In a good way. They corral that arrogance and they believe," Kerr said of his team. "They believe they're going to win."

And look, we all know the Spurs will be fine. They'll throw something else at Golden State when they see them again in March and there will be a half-dozen other variables in play if they happen to meet in the playoffs. They're not going to get rattled by a regular season beatdown. But if we learned anything on this night, it's that it's the Warriors who are in control. Everyone else, even the mighty Spurs, are chasing their lead.

* * *

Unstoppable: If Kawhi Leonard can't stop Stephen Curry, we're ALL doomed

Be sure to subscribe to SB Nation's YouTube channel for highlight videos, features, analysis and more