San Antonio @ Golden State preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 19, 2018 ) Golden State 75, San Antonio 89

The San Antonio Spurs thought they had a chance to knock off the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference finals last season and held a big lead in Game 1 until superstar Kawhi Leonard went down with an ankle injury. Leonard will be missing again when the teams meet a couple rounds earlier this spring, with the second-seeded Warriors hosting the seventh-seeded Spurs in Game 1 of the first-round series on Saturday.

Leonard missed all but nine games this season while trying to rehabilitate a quad injury but San Antonio still managed to secure its 21st consecutive playoff appearance behind All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge and a solid supporting cast that still includes 40-year-old future Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili. "We all know that we are not favorites, that we are underdogs," Ginobili told reporters. "But also, if we are underdogs, there is a reason we are underdogs, and that is they are better at this point. To (counter that), we have got to play above where we have been playing, especially on the road. We don't have homecourt advantage, so we really have to improve in many ways." The Warriors are not heading into the postseason at 100 percent, either, and two-time MVP Stephen Curry (knee) is not expected to be available in the first round. “It’s what I took from my San Antonio days,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr, who won a pair of championships as a player with San Antonio, told reporters of the key injury: "Stuff happens. We went in one year without Tim Duncan. ... You just don’t know what’s coming. So, you just prepare, and you do your best and you fight and you stay together."

TV: 3 p.m. ET, ABC

ABOUT THE SPURS (47-35): Second-year point guard Dejounte Murray found himself thrust into the rotation in the Western Conference finals last season after Tony Parker went down with an injury, but he is more comfortable now after spending most of 2017-18 as the starter. "It's a new year, new playoffs," Murray told reporters. "We've got to execute the game plan. Coach has a good game plan and we've got to go out - it's up to the players to execute the game plan. It's not going to be perfect, but we can still execute and get the best out of it." Murray adds some youth to a roster that leans heavily on the likes of Ginobili, Pau Gasol, age 37, Danny Green, 30, and Rudy Gay, 31.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS (58-24): Golden State is 17-14 this season in games missed by Curry, but the team will lean on All-Stars Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the first round. Durant, who dealt with a rib injury late in the regular season, averaged 26.4 points on 51.6 percent shooting and has the confidence of his teammates to lead the way. "We all want Steph to be here," Quinn Cook, who is starting in place of Curry, told reporters, "but it gives us so much confidence knowing that we have another one of the greatest players to ever play the game."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Spurs SF Kyle Anderson is starting in Leonard's spot and averages 7.9 points on 52.7 percent shooting and 5.4 rebounds.

2. Cook is averaging 14.6 points and shooting 47.1 percent from 3-point range in 18 games as a starter.

3. San Antonio snapped an eight-game losing streak in the series - including playoffs - when it earned an 89-75 home win over a Golden State team that was missing Curry, Durant and Thompson on March 19.

PREDICTION: Warriors 110, Spurs 106