ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the first half recap of the Denver Nuggets at the Golden State Warriors.
3rd Quarter
Andre Iguodala started in place of Harrison Barnes, who was reported by the Warriors as having a right knee sprain, although details of when the injury occurred were not immediately disclosed.
Draymond Green had a spectacular dunk early in the third frame, but it was after the Nuggets had already scored the first 5 points of the quarter.
Green then got a double-tip-in on sheer effort, then another bucket to close the gap to 65-68, and Nuggets head coach Mike Malone called a timeout to stop the Denver bleeding:
Draymond Green takes it up strong. #Warriors cut the Nuggets lead to 68-65 9:17 3Q on KNBR 680 pic.twitter.com/R6CZebofKw
— KNBR (@KNBR) October 14, 2015
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It worked, as the Nuggets went on a 18-7 run, although Curry did get this step-back in:
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Green got a nice lob to Andrew Bogut, who got a back screen from Stephen Curry, but Curry was called for the hands to the midsection. The offensive foul and turnover gave Curry 4 personal fouls.
Kenneth Faried then dunked the ball off a missed Wilson Chandler runner, but Curry came back with a sling pass to an open Klay Thompson for a triple, causing #DubNation to tweet, “Finally!” almost simultaneously.
Faried added a slashing and-one fed by Chandler, Chandler got a dunk on a feed by Emmanuel Mudiay and, after a Curry up-pass to Leandro Barbosa bounced off Barbosa, Gary Harris slammed home the turnover unmolested and the Nuggets had a commanding 86-72 lead.
Barbosa got a layup thanks to an Iguodala transition attack after Jameer Nelson missed a three, but Danilo Gallinari took James McAdoo off the dribble for an and-one to make it 88-76, Denver, with 1:16 to go in the quarter. This after Festus Ezeli missed a couple of post-up jump hooks deep inside.
The Nuggets took a 92-76 lead into the fourth quarter.
4th Quarter
It being a preseason game, Walton had no incentive to bring any of the starters back for the final frame, so it was time to evaluate the training camp invitees and Ian Clark checked in, along with Jason Thompson, with 9 minutes to go and the Warriors down 13, 83-96.
With 6 minutes to go, Jarell Eddie and Chris Babb subbed in and Clark had the point position with those two wings, plus Marreese Speights and Thompson as the bigs.
Clark made a couple jumpers…
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…one of them a Curry-like floater…
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…and Eddie added a triple after a Speights jumper, and the Warriors’ third-string showed some fight, cutting the Denver lead down to 105-96 and Oracle finally getting louder.
However, Matt Janning fed Joffrey Lauvergne for a dunk to stop the run.
Speights rebounded a Babb missed triple and got an and-one reverse layup, but missed the free throw after Walton called timeout with 2:46 to play and Golden State down, 109-98.
With #Roaracle 80% empty as the fans had accomplished their mission of securing a Curry bobblehead, neither team made a dent in the final two minutes, although Speights canned a catch-and-shoot triple from the right wing for a mini-highlight, but he also tried to lead a fastbreak in the last remaining ticks of the clock, and threw the ball away to close things out.
The Nuggets won by the final score of 114-103.
The loss left the Warriors to consider how to respond once again to the rise of an opponent seeking to take down the champs, much as the Portland Trail Blazers had done five nights ago.
Faried tallied 22 points, 12 rebounds, while Mudiay added an impressive 16 points, 9 assists. Barbosa led the Warriors with 16 points off the bench. Green had 15 points, 9 rebounds, and Curry finished with 14 points, 7 assists. Klay only scored 8 points on 5 free throws and 1 made field goal.
The Warriors will have Open Practice tomorrow night, then face the visiting Houston Rockets in two nights.
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