Where to watch
The Warriors’ schedule for the week, and how to watch them (all TV & times UAE, US TV and Eastern time in parentheses)
*UAE and other international viewers can pay to watch all games at watch.nba.com
Monday v Minnesota Timberwolves, 6.30am (Tuesday) BeIn Sports 12 (10.30 pm, TNT)
Thursday v San Antonio Spurs, 6.30am (Friday) BeIn Sports 12 (10.30 pm, TNT)
•BeIn has not yet set its full viewing schedule beyond Friday
Saturday at Memphis Grizzlies, 4am (Sunday) (8pm, NBA League Pass)
Sunday at San Antonio Spurs, 3am (Monday) (7 pm, NBA TV)
Next week
Wednesday v Memphis Grizzlies, 6.30am (Thursday) (10.30pm, NBA League Pass)
The biggest mystery surrounding the Golden State Warriors’ run at history is how motivated the San Antonio Spurs will be to stop it.
The NBA's two best teams this season will meet twice this week, perhaps the biggest remaining obstacles to the Warriors' quest for an NBA-record 73 victories.
Or, the Spurs might decide not to be much of an obstacle at all.
With less than two weeks until the play-offs and the Spurs (64-12) all but locked into the No 2 seed in the Western Conference, coach Gregg Popovich has already begun resting his players on occasion. So it’s impossible to predict who will be in uniform for San Antonio when they travels to Golden State on Thursday, or when they host the Warriors (69-8) on Sunday.
“It doesn’t matter, to me, how he plays it,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Popovich, one of his former coaches. “His team is a little older than ours, too.”
Kerr said the younger Warriors told him they don’t feel they need a rest, but Popovich doesn’t exactly give his players the option. When he made LaMarcus Aldridge sit out one of his first practices with the team in October, Popovich joked that he told the all-star forward, “Welcome to the Spurs.”
The Spurs will be opening a back-to-back Thursday in Oakland, so Popovich figures to sit some regulars either that night or Friday at the Denver Nuggets. San Antonio are then off until the Warriors visit, and follow that game with another night off before hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder.
San Antonio will be 39-0 at home when Golden State arrive, two victories from becoming the first team in NBA history to go undefeated at home for an entire season. That could motivate the Spurs to make everyone available – and leave Kerr as the one who might play the rest card.
The Warriors will be playing for the second straight night after a game at the Memphis Grizzlies, and Kerr said he may give reserve guard Shaun Livingston one of those games off.
“Other than that, we have a lot of young guys who have no reason to sit out because they’re feeling great,” Kerr said.
Elsewhere in the NBA this week
Big One in the Big D: With the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz tied for the final Western Conference play-off spot and the Houston Rockets a game back, it is a huge game in Dallas on Wednesday night when Houston visit.
Strive for Five: With the injury-plagued Memphis Grizzlies on a six-game losing streak, the Portland Trail Blazers have pulled within a half-game of the Grizzlies for the No 5 seed in the Western Conference.
Duncan's 1,000th: Tim Duncan's next victory will be his 1,000th in the regular season, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,074) and Robert Parish (1,014) as the only players to reach that milestone. Duncan is already the career leader in victories with one team.
Philly Futility: The Philadelphia 76ers have lost 12 straight games and remain stuck on nine wins. They need one more to avoid tying their own record for worst in an 82-game season, and their next chance to get it is against the injury-depleted New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday.
State line of the week
Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers: 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists Sunday in a 114-109 victory over the Washington Wizards. The star forward started and played 25 minutes in his first game since Christmas after recovering from quadriceps and hand injuries, and sitting out a four-game suspension for punching the team's assistant equipment manager.
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