One night after disposing the depleted Mavs, the Golden State Warriors (6-2) were at Pepsi Center to face the Denver Nuggets (3-6), who lead the NBA in rebounding.
The Warriors were without Damian Jones (pectoral surgery) and James McAdoo (placed on inactive list), as head coach Steve Kerr opted to make Anderson Varejao active against a bigger team.
Golden State also announced that Stephen Curry would play, despite tweaking his right ankle in the third quarter against Dallas.
The Nuggets were without Will Barton (ankle), Wilson Chandler (hamstring), and Darrell Arthur (knee).
Q1 – Steals
Kevin Durant took the first shot of the night, but back-rimmed it. However, the ball caromed right back to him and he grabbed it, and darted it over to Draymond Green on the left wing, who swished it for three points.
Later, after a jump-pass turnover by Klay Thompson and a lost ball on a non-foul-call by Emmanuel Mudiay on a Curry attack, Durant looped around Green iso’ed on the left wing and got a beautiful backdoor bounce pass from the baseline dunk:
.@Money23Green finds the cutting @KDTrey5 on @CSNAuthentic. pic.twitter.com/JLbdk4MpLr
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 11, 2016
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Mudiay then made a bad pass, Thompson hit a jumper up top delivered by Durant, and Mudiay missed a jumper, followed up by a Zaza Pachulia layup assisted by Curry.
Denver head coach Mike Malone took a quick timeout as Golden State inched out to an early 9-6 lead.
Pachulia committed his second personal foul on a defensive rebound entangled with Jusuf Nurkic, both players falling to the ground. That prompted Kerr to insert JaVale McGee.
“KD” hit a jumper, Steph dribbled past a switched Nikola Jurkic for a layup, Mudiay went out of control and got his pass stolen by Draymond, which led to an in-transition triple from the left wing, Steph banging the shot in over Jokic:
Defense to offense on @CSNAuthentic. pic.twitter.com/HBKW9ytBWt
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 11, 2016
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Mudiay messed up again, taking a bad three, and Klay went inside to Green for free throws.
Danilo Gallinari then missed, and Steph went lob to McGee for another bucket, forcing Malone to call another timeout as the Warriors busted out to a 20-8 lead with 5:41 remaining.
After the timeout, Thompson went top shelf to McGee again for a two-handed jam on the turn in the post, in traffic, Draymond got into the action with his own lob to JaVale, earning a trip to the line:
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McGee hit both throws and Patrick McCaw checked in.
After a nice pull-up by Jamal Murray over McCaw, McCaw came back with a hot-potato pass from and back to Green, who drilled another triple from the same left arc.
Two possessions later, Draymond stole another bad pass, this time by Nurkic, and Green pushed the ball to feed a trailing Curry on the opposite left wing. The cross-court pass resulted in a swish for Steph, giving him 14 points and the Warriors a 36-19 lead.
Kenneth Faried’s drive then got blocked by Durant in the paint on the waist, Juancho Hernangomez got the loose ball, but coughed it up to Andre Iguodala, who went coast-to-coast for a pretty soaring layup with just 12 seconds to go:
.@andre starts it and @andre finishes it. (@CSNAuthentic) pic.twitter.com/aPz0Q3o0Jz
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 11, 2016
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The Warriors got their fifth steal of the quarter as Jameer Nelson threw the ball away to David West at the buzzer, and Golden State doubled up Denver, 38-19, heading into the second stanza.
Q2 – Solid Play
Golden State kept their cushion strong, although Nurkic got two dunks down the lane after breaks in the action and despite another jump pass turnover by Klay.
West made a floater, Durant hit a face-up jumper, Iguodala forced a terrible backcourt up-pass from the post by Nurkic, and West hit a left-baseline jumper assisted by an upfaking and driving Ian Clark, who was met with a switch by Nurkic.
Nurkic finally headed to the bench after getting the chair pulled from him on a back-down post-up of Pachulia, then fouling Zaza out of frustration at the other end.
After a baseline pull-up by Shaun Livingston matched by a Hernangomez catch-and-shoot triple from the top, Malone called another timeout with 5:56 left and the Warriors maintained a 48-32 lead.
Out of the timeout, Ian Clark found Zaza for a bucket, then after a Jokic miss, Draymond got the board, led the break, and found Livingston for a dunk down the right side:
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Malone called another timeout, but Curry missed a catch-and-shoot three, leading to a Jokic-to-Gary Harris jumper, and a Livingston baseline jumper that went too hard resulted in an early Mudiay crossover at the right wing and lefty layup at the rim past Pachulia.
Kerr called a 20-second timeout to put out the Nuggets sparks, Denver trimming the lead to 52-36.
Out of the timeout, Curry went right baseline on a switch with Jokic and used his body and the rim to shield him away from the big man for a nice reverse layup:
Nice move by the MVP on @CSNAuthentic. pic.twitter.com/25pyTzx0nw
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 11, 2016
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The teams traded buckets after that, with Durant converting free throws on a Faried accidental trip after Steph stole a bad pass by Harris.
KD added a nifty dribble in the paint on a catch to free himself up for a little bucket at the rim, then Durant put back a missed corner three by Curry, and Iguodala found Klay on a cut for an “and-one” layup with 40 seconds remaining.
But Gallinari kept the Nuggets clinging to the rope with a running banker plus the harm, then a three on a catch-and-shoot way up top over KD, and missed threes by Durant and Murray left the Warriors with a 65-51 lead heading into halftime.
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