ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Three nights after defeating the Mavs, the Golden State Warriors (29-5) were back home to face the Denver Nuggets (14-19).
The Warriors were without Patrick McCaw (flu-like symptoms). JaVale McGee (illness) and Shaun Livingston (left elbow contusion, right hip contusion) returned to action after being listed as “questionable” earlier in the morning. Head coach Steve Kerr told reporters during the pregame press conference that he would list Damian Jones as inactive and activate Anderson Varejao and James McAdoo against the big frontline of the Nuggets.
Denver was without Darrell Arthur (left knee soreness) and Kenneth Faried (low back pain).
Q1: Lotsa Buckets
Danilo Gallinari hit his first two shots, one a long two and the other a three on a dribble pull-up, but Golden State cut to the hole and got a couple buckets from Zaza Pachulia courtesy Stephen Curry and Draymond Green on an assist by Pachulia.
After an inside hook shot by Zaza over Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant stole a post entry, then raced up the court with Klay Thompson. Thompson pulled up and drilled a triple from the left arc to give the Warriors a 14-11 lead with 7:52 remaining.
Later, Curry dealt Pachulia a behind-the-back feed at the free throw line, Zaza short-rimmed, but later he disrupted an attack by Gallinari, then at the other end, Durant up-faked the mismatched Jokic from the right arc, took two steps in, and slammed home the drive:
[protected-iframe id=”46759470d150d738df1a2b3b682a7122-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F816130106091454464″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]Out of a timeout shortly therafter, Steph hit a trey from the left wing…
[protected-iframe id=”5833194352686085f7e841512c0a8ad8-114320562-10106876″ info=”https://vine.co/v/599ugzFpLDu/embed/simple” width=”300″ height=”300″ frameborder=”0″]https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js…Wilson Chandler tried to push the ball, but stepped on the baseline while passing Draymond Green’s defense, and Thompson and Green played hot potato in the right corner, yielding a catch-and-shoot triple for Klay on the right arc, giving the Warriors a 22-15 lead with 5:37 to play as Nuggets head coach Mike Malone called timeout.
But out of the timeout, Golden State made two straight turnovers as Green threw the ball away on a KD cut, then Draymond lost the ball on an inside post against the smaller Gary Harris, and finally Andre Iguodala got a feed from Steph at the rim, gave up the shot, and threw the ball away at the free throw line.
Harris pushed the ball up to find Jokic at the rim, past McGee, and Kerr called a timeout as the Nuggets closed to within 22-20 with 4:07 to go.
Out of the timeout, Curry found JaVale for a slam dunk, and-one, but McGee missed the free throw.
JaVale got another alley-oop two possessions after that, from Iguodala…
[protected-iframe id=”69631a954450d25aa577372c380c4560-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F816133396233498625″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]…but Denver answered with Will Barton dishing to Jusuf Nurkic at the hoop and Barton getting a two-hand jam.
Barton fed off that energy and hit a pull-up three after Durant’s attack into the paint trickled off the rim, but Steph came back with a crossover on Jameer Nelson for an and-one, then Nelson made a bad pass and the Warriors had possession with 28 seconds left.
KD reset the ball at the top, hit Ian Clark in the right corner and Clark fed the ball right back to Durant for a jumper at the shot clock buzzer.
But Nelson hustled back and lofted a floater at the buzzer, and Golden State held a slim 35-33 lead heading into the second stanza.
Q2: Shootout
The Warriors’ defense seemed porous at times, as Nelson drove past Clark to start the second quarter with an and-one. David West got a nice touch pass to Iguodala down low in one motion for a bucket, but Nelson raced up the court again and found Nurkic for an easy uncontested slam.
At least the Warriors were still scoring, and Clark swished a trey, then got a finger roll on a fast break as Shaun Livingston got a steal and the assist.
Clark added a floater, but only after an easy touchdown dunk by Jamal Murray off a miss by KD.
Nurkic asserted himself down low and spun to the baseline for a quick bucket, Barton dunked on a feed from Murray after another Durant miss, but KD came back with a jumper and Klay popped a triple on a catch from Clark via West.
With 6:16 remaining, the game was knotted up at 51-51.
After a timeout, Steph hit a catch-and-shoot jumper, then after Emmanuel Mudiay missed a spinning fade, Curry pulled up in transition and nailed from downtown, giving the Warriors a mini-spurt:
[protected-iframe id=”2678cac83401c68fd883a0cc02b885fd-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F816142950623232000″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]But Gallinari put out that fire with a three immediately right back over Green from the right arc, silencing the eager Oracle crowd.
Nurkic added an offensive rebound putback righty hook, but Golden State counter-punched as Livingston got the Denver defense on its heels breaking the perimeter defense, and dishing to Draymond for a slam dunk as Malone took another timeout, the Warriors leaking out to a 60-55 lead:
[protected-iframe id=”372459c274fa33c8e98b83efd120b33d-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F816140235104919552″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]Durant added a dunk on a tic-tac-toe from Green via Livingston, then Draymond fed Klay for an and-one drive, but Durant lost the ball in transition in a weird play with Iguodala strangely going out of bounds…
[protected-iframe id=”4f83110792a85dc4976024069b1ae108-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F816140516320362496″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]…Curry up-faked into the paint and airballed the scoop, and Gallinari made them pay again with a long two.
Green made another bad pass, this time to a cutting Thompson, but Gallinari threw the ball away:
[protected-iframe id=”95177d18d9d7e5ac48e4ea17042d4da6-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F816140941597675520″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]However, Draymond missed the 2-for-1 try with a triple, and Barton made an acrobatic one-hand putback off the board on a Harris miss to make it 65-64, Warriors, with the quarter winding down.
With 5.6 seconds to go, after a Gallinari foul on Durant (the Nuggets were not in the penalty), KD got the ball, sized up his defender, and with the clock running down finally decided to just take a deep fade-away.
The ball splashed through as the horn sounded, giving the Warriors a 68-64 lead at halftime:
[protected-iframe id=”9cb24173a20a2d16913d4c1ef59e0f6c-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F816141318401314816″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”d5f0541424412f0f99bca2b8ba9cadb4-114320562-10106876″ info=”https://vine.co/v/599HxamZaUz/embed/simple” width=”300″ height=”300″ frameborder=”0″]https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsDurant led all scorers with 13 points, Klay added 12, Steph 11, and Clark had 12 off the bench, while Gallinari led Denver with 11.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @bimbo.jimbo)
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