It didn’t happen until over halfway through the season, but fans around the league finally got what they had been waiting for: an epic tilt between two historically great teams that just so happen to exist in the same season. With the title seemingly destined to either head back to the Bay or line Gregg Popovich’s cluttered trophy cabinet in San Antonio, the matchup between the Spurs and Warriors last night carried more weight than a typical regular season showdown. And after witnessing Golden State’s smackdown of San Antonio in Oracle, we were left with four key questions about how things will unfold when these two teams meet again in both the regular season and, hopefully, late in the Western Conference playoffs.

1. Is Tony Parker destined to be a liability whenever these two teams square off?

Parker was only responsible for a raw +/- of -15 during the game -- amazingly only the fifth worst mark on the team, but it felt like he could do no right. Only 2-of-6 from the field with three turnovers, Parker looked far from threatening last night. And while the offensive woes are hardly anything to get worked up about in just one game, it’s the other side of the ball that's concerning

Simply put, there’s no safe place to hide Parker. San Antonio started the game off with Parker on the Warriors MVP point guard, but after a few dicey possessions during which Stephen Curry did Stephen Curry things like this…

...the shell game of “Hide the Frenchman” began. The reason for concern moving forward for the Spurs is that it seemed like anywhere Parker went, points off post ups followed. First, the Warriors sought out Harrison Barnes, who drained a jumper over a double team.

Later in the game, it was Andre Iguodala’s turn to draw two Spurs defenders and find a cutting Shaun Livingston for an easy basket.

Now this isn’t all bad news for Parker and San Antonio. The fact that Golden State went these matchups could actually wind up working against them. After all, a post up by Barnes or Iguodala is not Curry performing his wizardry with the basketball. Giving up layups off double teams in this situations obviously isn’t a good trade off, but if the Spurs can coax the Warriors to attack Parker with these posts ups and turn them into more jumpers, like the one from Barnes, it could actually work in their favor.  

That said, there seems to be no safe place for Parker in this matchup. How that manifests itself as this matchup evolves, will be fascinating to watch.

2. Can the Spurs mid-range game keep up against the Warriors 3-point barrage?

Last night San Antonio attempted 37 shots between the restricted area near the basket and the 3-point line, per NBA.com data. Golden State, on the hand, attempted just 25 such shots. This is pretty consistent with how both teams have operated all season long. And while it’s easy to assume the Spurs are fundamentally flawed because of their reliance on the mid-range, it’s important to note that they still have one of the league’s best offenses despite ranking hoisting the third most shots from that area of the floor.

In news to no one, whipping up on the rest of the league isn’t the same as trying to outpace the basketball juggernaut that is the Warriors. Can the Spurs really rely on a steady diet of David West pick-and-pop jumpers or LaMarcus Aldridge 10-foot turnarounds in the post to hang with what Curry and Co. will do from beyond the arc?

Now this obviously this is a bit of an oversimplification. There is always a bit of nuance in how these shot types occur during games and how it augments or outright defines a team’s offensive approach. The Spurs are clearly a very good offensive team, but when the margins for error are this small, will this basic tenet be the difference between who ultimately gets the best of this matchup?

3. Who guards Steph Curry?

In short, no one guards Curry. That dude is unstoppable. The best teams can hope for at this point is offering some resistance. As mentioned above, Parker got his crack and couldn’t slow Curry down. Ditto for Kawhi Leonard, though a one game sample size is hardly a fair measuring stick and one of the best defensive players in the league should be given the benefit of the doubt. Should you answer this question based off last night’s one game sample size, it would appear that there is a Spurs player with potential to at least make Curry (appear to) work really hard before hitting some insane shot: Jonathon Simmons.

Whereas Leonard is long, strong and smart, Simmons might have a bit more fluidity to his movement -- something that helps when trying to contain the whirling dervish with a basketball that is Curry. Simmons committed at least one silly foul and could be prone to hurt the overall scheme with his overaggressive approach, but if there was one silver lining the Spurs could take away from last night’s beatdown, it was how the unheralded rookie handled the league’s best player. This matchup will definitely be worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

4. Will Golden State even need to unleash their super-small lineup? And what will happen when they do?

Here is the really depressing thing about last night for San Antonio fans: their team got smacked by 30 and their opponent didn’t even have to play extended stretches with what is the league’s most dominant 5-man lineup, per NBA.com. The Warriors four nominal big men -- Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli, Mo Speights and Jason Thompson -- combined to play 53 total minutes last night (with Thompson’s seven coming in garbage time). Of all the intriguing aspects about Monday's game, this might be the most fascinating thing that happened (unless you’re a Spurs fan).

It also creates a series of fun, tactical questions moving forward. Is the absence of the Warriors small-ball lineup something the team is holding in reserve for the playoffs? Or is it something that the coaching staff feels is unnecessary to utilize given how the Spurs utilize such traditional lineups with two bigs? And on the flip side, should San Antonio suffer another bad loss (or two), will they be the ones to tempt fate and go extremely small on their end (think Leonard at the 5) and see how their switch-heavy defensive approach fares against Golden State?

How this chess match unfolds will be yet another great subplot to the on-going battles between the NBA’s two best teams.