AT&T Center – The second round of the Western Conference playoffs are upon the city of San Antonio as the San Antonio Spurs prepare to begin a new series against the Golden State Warriors.

With a new series at hand, a familiar face on the Spurs will be making a return to the lineup as Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said Boris Diaw, who had been recovering from a synovial cyst excision of the lumbar spine, will start in game one against the Warriors.

Tiago Splitter will be out in game one as he continues to recover from his sprained right ankle, but Coach Popovich said Splitter will definitely play in the series either as soon as Wednesday in Game two or at most this weekend in one of the games in Golden State.

To add more relief for Spurs fans concerned about the health of the team, Popovich said Manu Ginobili, whose minutes were restricted in the first series against the Los Angeles Lakers, is fully ready to take on regular minutes each game against the Warriors.

The San Antonio Spurs (4-0) will host the Golden State Warriors (4-2) at the AT&T Center in Game 1 of their Semifinal matchup. During the regular season, the two teams split their four meetings (2-2) with each winning on their home court. 

The Spurs have had eight days off after dispatching the Lakers in four games of the opening round series. San Antonio will have Boris Diaw back after undergoing surgery on his back but Tiago Splitter remains questionable after injuring his ankle during the Lakers series.

The Warriors are coming off a 4-2 series win over the Nuggets, however, the team has not won in San Antonio in 16 years (lost 29 games straight). Golden State's David Lee is questionable for Game 1 (hip flexor).

So as the Spurs and Warriors get set to clash tonight, here are five things to watch for during tonight's game:

The most interesting aspect of the Golden State Warriors' first round victory over the Denver Nuggets was their inability to handle the Warriors going small with Harrison Barnes.  Despite having the personnel to handle that particular line up, it proved difficult for a couple of reasons.  First, it's tough to scheme against a line up that almost never got used in the regular season.  Second, it's tough to scheme against a line up with four potentially potent scorers and one giant who happens to be an excellent rebounder.

While the San Antonio Spurs do have five games of tape to breakdown this small line up, they still have the issue of figuring out to limit the scoring for a line up that could provide some match up problems for the Spurs.  According to Stephen Curry himself, the Spurs used Danny Green on him the most in the regular season.  Our own Kyle Boenitz thinks we'll see Kawhi Leonard also guarding him.  If Green guards Curry, that means Leonard likely slides over to Klay Thompson, Tony Parker to Jarrett Jack and either Tiago Splitter or Boris Diaw on Harrison Barnes.  So somewhere on the court there's a mismatch.

The biggest matchup in the upcoming series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors is going to be Stephen Curry against whatever defensive scheme Coach Popovich wants to go with. Whether it be the length and athleticism of Kawhi Leonard, the quickness and agility of Tony Parker or some sort of combination, you can bet the Spurs are going to be locked in on Curry all series long.

During some recent interviews it was clear that the Spurs have a lot of respect for the Warriors’ leading scorer. Parker likened him to a shorter version of Durant and Pop called him maybe the best shooter in the league.

Andrew Bogut dominated Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets. When his Golden State Warriors teammates were off on their shot or on defense, he was there to bail them out with an impressive 14 point, 21 rebounds, and 4 block night.

That was against a banged up Denver Nuggets team and won't be seeing anything close to that tonight.

Bogut isn't going to be defending JaVale McGee or Kenneth Faried in the paint tonight. Those two players are good players in their own right, but depend on others to create for them. For the majority of the series, he was able to play off his man to help out and that's something he won't be able to do against Tim Duncan.

He knows this and it sounds like he's ready for the challenge.

The San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors will kick of their Semifinal playoff series tonight in San Antonio where the Warriors have not won in 16 years.

On this episode of the News 4 San Antonio-Project Spurs, Spurs Roundtable, Project Spurs' Jeff Garcia and Pounding the Rock's Aaron Preine join forces to break down the series.

We discuss if the Spurs can handle the Warriors' small-ball attack, defending Stephen Curry, if San Antonio should play a more physical game versus the Warriors and much more including our predictions on which team wins this series.

Before David Lee tore his hip flexor, the Golden State Warriors frontcourt was already lacking in playoff caliber talent. Without Lee, the most potent interior option on the team, coach Mark Jackson went a different route. He featured a new lineup, featuring Stephen Curry, Jarrett Jack, Klay Thompson, rookie Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut.

One of the best aspects in watching sports is first seeing something develop with your eyes and then going back to a box score to see your analysis proven with real numbers.

For example, when you watch a basketball game, you might say, “Player X shoots and misses a lot of jumpers.” From there, you get home, go to the box score and find that Player X attempted 10 jump shots and only made four of them, meaning Player X is a 40% shooter.

When it comes to breaking down the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors, all we have is quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative is four Spurs games and six Warriors games. Qualitative is what my eyes saw both in person at the AT&T Center and at home on my TV screen.

Going furthermore, in looking at the data of these two teams, you must also keep in mind that they came against two totally different opponents – The Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, two teams that are not remotely built in the same mold of the Spurs and Warriors, and who were missing key players.

In the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, the Western Conference Semifinals are represented by a city nestled by a bay, and another renowned for its River Walk. Appropriate that both teams be associated with something as elemental as water, given the fluidity of some key components.

Stephen Curry, the fourth-year point guard for the Warriors, is perhaps the best shooter in NBA history. Absurd as that statement might seem for a player so early in his career, given the list of Hall of Fame players who built a legacy on the accuracy of their jumper, Curry certainly at least earns a spot in the conversation.

AT&T Center – Coming into the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, Golden State Warriors guards Stephen Curry and Jarrett Jack are averaging a combined 43.1 points and 16.3 assists per game.

The San Antonio Spurs’ perimeter defense will have a challenge on their hands limiting the Warriors dynamic shooters as much as possible. On Sunday, before beginning practice, the Warriors guards discussed the Spurs, and Curry gave an interesting reaction to a comment from Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

Before game two of the Spurs’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Coach Popovich said watching Curry shoot reminded him of watching Michael Jordan. When Curry was notified of Popovich’s comment Sunday, he had one reaction.

“Was he drunk when he said that?”

For Curry, he knows the Spurs’ defense will bring him different looks than he faced against the Denver Nuggets. Curry’s hoping he can continue to shoot the ball the way he was doing in the first round. To prepare for the Spurs, Curry said he’s watched a lot of film and even watched how they defended Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul last year.