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.

AT&T Center – As the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors prepare to begin the opening game of the second round on Monday, Warriors head coach Mark Jackson doesn’t see his team as having any pressure on their shoulders.

“No there’s no pressure,” said Jackson on Sunday, a day before the Warriors face off against the Spurs. “We’re playing with house money,” continued Jackson, “there’s no pressure.”

Jackson went on to say that most experts didn’t pencil in the Warriors, a number-6 seed, on the list of the final eight teams representing the Western Conference. Jackson said the Spurs have the advantages in coaching, the team, and should be labeled the “favorite” in the series.

“This is definitely a tougher task,” said Jackson of facing the Spurs, “(but) one we’re excited about.”

The Spurs and Warriors went 2-2 in the regular season, and though it’s the playoffs, Jackson says the Spurs know exactly who the current Warriors are.

“Pop (Popovich) and his staff know what we’re trying to do,” said Jackson, “there’s no secrets.”

As for what has changed from the Spurs since the last time the Warriors saw them, Jackson mentioned health and the ability to run the fast break.

The San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors will kick off their Semifinal series this Monday in San Antonio -- a city that has not been kind to the Warriors.

Golden State has not won in San Antonio in 16 years which makes Game 1 that much more daunting for the Warriors.

The Warriors arrived in San Antonio yesterday and rookie Draymond Green spoke about the team viewing the trip as a "business trip" and said the team's losing streak in San Antonio is nothing to be worried about.

Check out what Green had to say about the series versus San Antonio.

The San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors will clash in the West Semifinals which will kick off this Monday in San Antonio.

One of the better matchups to watch will be at point guard as Tony Parker and Stephen Curry will face off and hope they will be able to control the tempo for their respective team in order to advance to the West Finals.

Speaking with Grantland, Curry opened up on which player is the toughest to face and mentioned Parker alongside Russell Westbrook. From describing TP as a "mouse" scurrying all over the court on the screen-and-roll to saying Parker lives in the paint, Curry describes why Tony is just tough to face.

The Golden State Warriors haven't had much time to rest up for the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio will have had one week off from the playoffs compared to Golden State and the Spurs will look to take advantage of that.

Warriors head coach Mark Jackson mentions a few things he's looking forward to and looking into the upcoming series.

Jackson comments on what he'll be focusing on during the series.

The one thing that jumps out immediately is that they’re the No. 1 fast-breaking team in the playoffs so far. You think about the Spurs and you think they execute you to death, obviously Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, Ginobili off the bench and the great role players. But they forced the tempo against the Lakers. I’m sure that was a game plan strategy, but we are going to make sure that…

With the firing of head coach Lawrence Frank, there's a vacancy in the head coach position with the Detroit Pistons.

Not only have the Pistons organization recruited Phil Jackson to help them with the coaching hunt, they also have an interest on a top San Antonio Spurs assistant coach.

San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer has emerged as a candidate for the Detroit Pistons' head coaching job, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Pistons president Joe Dumars traveled to San Antonio on Wednesday and spent several hours meeting with Budenholzer, the top assistant to Gregg Popovich.

Now it’s official. The Golden State Warriors put away the Denver Nuggets in six games to finish off the upset.

If you’re a San Antonio Spurs fan, you’re probably happy with that result. I think the Warriors are a better matchup for the Spurs than the Nuggets would have been. However, they’re clearly a very dangerous team, playing with a lot of momentum and confidence so the Spurs should not take them lightly.

The biggest test for the Spurs will be stepping up their perimeter defense, but that’s just one of the matchups to keep an eye on.

Stephen Curry vs. Kawhi Leonard (or others)