Jerry West concedes Spurs would've won Game 1

Golden State Warriors executive Jerry West is only saying the obvious.

West appeared on KNBR's The Murph and Mac Show on Tuesday and plainly stated that the San Antonio Spurs would have taken a 1-0 series lead if Kawhi Leonard managed to avoid re-injuring his ankle.

"To lose someone of his caliber when they were playing so well, and to lose a game they played well enough to win, to be honest with you," West said. "Frankly, if he would've been there we (Golden State) would not have won that game."

"He's one of my two, three favorite players in the league, I absolutely love Kawhi Leonard as a player," he added.

San Antonio was dominant with Leonard on the floor in Game 1. They held a 23-point lead at the time of his departure, but gave it all away over the final 20 minutes as the Warriors stormed back to narrowly take Game 1. That result was followed by a dominating performance in Game 2 by the Warriors with Leonard sidelined.

Leonard missed time in the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets with an ankle injury that was re-aggravated in the third quarter of Game 1.

He first tweaked it while stepping on teammate David Lee's foot as Leonard backpedaled into the Spurs' bench. The finishing blow came when Leonard landed on Zaza Pachulia's foot, who had encroached his landing space on a corner jumper.

Pachulia's intent has become the major subject of debate in the series. West's perspective is that it was just bad luck for the Spurs.

"Sometimes luck comes into play," West said. "We were fortunate he wasn't able to play, but I don't know how you could practice or even consider practicing preventing someone from stepping on someone's foot. I think he (Leonard) stepped on David Lee's foot and hurt it before. How do you define that?"

Leonard finished with 26 points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes on Sunday before exiting the match.