What a shame for those who missed tonight’s thriller in downtown Denver, as the Nuggets upset the Warriors 112-110 in their most exciting game of the last three seasons.
The Warriors’ greatness was on display as they erased a 10 point fourth quarter deficit and kept battling back to the very end. Steph Curry scored 20 points on 7-8 shooting in the fourth quarter alone, but a total team effort from the resilient Nuggets proved to be just enough to stifle the world champs and hand the Warriors their third loss of the season. The Denver Nuggets have won two in a row at home and are 15-24 overall.
Kudos to Michael Malone for tweaking his small lineup prior to the game and starting Nikola Jokic instead of Darrell Arthur next to Faried. Jokic bore the brunt of a difficult matchup on Bogut, but Darrell Arthur became a huge problem off the bench. His shooting and size was a major factor against Golden State’s small bench unit and DA delivered one of the best performances of his career. Arthur was a beast on the glass (11 boards) and scored 18 point on 8-11 shooting, including 4-4 shooting in the fourth quarter, during Golden State’s insane run where Curry went nuclear.
Also turning in special performances were Will Barton (21 points) and Gary Harris (19 points). Harris played Curry about as well as you could through the first three quarters. Gallo continued to lead the way with another big scoring night of 28 points, including 17-19 from the free throw line.
It was an incredible game and incredible win for a rebuilding franchise still trying to find their way. Seriously, if you didn’t see this game go find a way to rewatch this classic now.
Some more thoughts and observations on how it all went down:
- Mudiay is taking a couple shots and making a couple of plays the Nuggets simply can’t afford him to make. With the Nuggets in control early in the fourth quarter, Mudiay sort of fell apart trying to push the ball and blow the game open. A couple of ill-advised threes, including an airball, led directly to Warriors layups. Another terrible jump pass in traffic was another fast break layup the other way. It’s always wise to have a patience with a rookie making one or two of these mistakes, but you can’t stick with a guy who is repeating them every trip down. What was an otherwise solid game for Mudiay was overshadowed by his terrible shooting and poor decision making with the game on the line.
- Jameer Nelson wasn’t much better, committing a costly out of bounds turnover in the final minute and starting the game shooting 0-7 from the field. The difference with Nelson is that the ball still moves, and his half-court threes aren’t the kind of misses which wildly swing momentum the other way. Jameer was nothing special, but his steady hand and 4 assists in the final frame were key to Denver maintaining composure and gutting out an improbable win against a great team.
- Golden State is a ridiculous team. They should have folded multiple times, and their defense never put together more than a couple stops at a time. Still, they always believe they’re in it and kept finding a way to come back from the dead. It just looked normal to them, and the things Curry can do are insane. With Draymond Green in the fold, the Nuggets are probably never even in this one.
- Despite Mudiay’s struggles, I loved seeing him subbed in for defense in the final 3 seconds, playing good straight up defense on Klay Thompson’s attempt at the buzzer. Mudiay’s only been back for two games and being part of a signature win like that is the kind of experience that’s going to mold him into a better player.
