warriors vs nuggets: Nate Robinson took over. (Photo: ESPN.com)
ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The result was eerily prophetic. Before the game at morning shootaround, the Golden State Warriors‘ center Andrew Bogut said about the Denver Nuggets, “They’re very, very active…we know that they’re very dangerous, they’re having fun, and they’ve found their rhythm,” having won five of their last six games.
At the pregame press conference, Warriors head coach Mark Jackson answered a question about whether or not it was an advantage or disadvantage to have as many as four days off in between games, as the Warriors had prior to the Denver meeting at #Roaracle.
“As a former player I would be able to answer that after the game. If I balled it was because of the rest and if I couldn’t buy a shot and turned the ball over I was out of rhythm,” Jackson said.
Well, Stephen Curry couldn’t buy a shot and turned the ball over and was out of rhythm. He committed a costly turnover at the end, isolated against J.J. Hickson at the top. Harrison Barnes, on his bobblehead night, played well overall, but inexplicably committed an and-one touch foul as Hickson soared in for the easy layup after Curry’s turnover.
Prior to that, Nate Robinson hit some amazing stop-n-pop jumpers to keep the cushion ahead of the surging Warriors, who were battling from behind all night.
Sarah Todd of SFBay.ca explains:
With just over three minutes to play it looked like Nate Robinson would lead to Nuggets to victory with his 14 fourth quarter points. But after a Curry three and a dunk from David Lee, the Warriors cut Nuggets lead to to just one.
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Lee took the ball with just over one minute left and was fouled by Robinson on his way to the basket. Making good on both free throws, the Warriors took the lead 116-115 with 1:13 on the clock and the crowd on their feet.
At that point, a #LetsGoWarriors chant broke out:
With the game in the balance, the Nuggets had effectively hammered the nail in the coffin.
Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area with the summary:
Stephen Curry scored 24 points but made only 4 of 13 3-point attempts. Klay Thompson added 21. Harrison Barnes came off the bench to put in 15 and Draymond Green added 11.
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The Nuggets were winners largely because they played with more passion and were able to exploit holes in the Warriors’ defense. The Warriors were outshot (54.2 percent to 43.3) and outrebounded 46-41.
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Four Nuggets scored at least 20 points, led by former Warriors guard Nate Robinson. Denver power forward J. J. Hickson grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds.
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Robinson came off the bench to deliver the kind of performance the Warriors can only hope to get from new acquisition Jordan Crawford. Robinson finished with 24 points in 23 mostly scintillating minutes.
Carl Steward of the Bay Area News Group with Jackson’s post-game explanation:
Curry only had two turnovers in the game, but that one was a killer.
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“We’ve seen him dance and make plays out of it, but give them credit,” Jackson said. “Steph turned it over. I’ll live with Hickson defending Steph Curry on the perimeter, but tonight he didn’t make the play. That pretty much summed up our night. You can’t disrespect the game and think it won’t bite you.”
Jackson also pointed to this halftime-buzzer-beating halfcourt shot by the Nuggets’ Evan Fournier, indicative of the Warriors’ lackadaisical effort on defense and lapse in concentration, especially as Klay Thompson argued a non-call on the other end as Fournier advanced the ball uncontested:
Indicative of the type of night was Kent Bazemore‘s missed opportunity at a SportsCenter Top Ten Play. Instead, he was mocked as “getting blocked by the rim”. The difference between such marked extremes can be so little:
One of the major issues brought up was that Andrew Bogut played only a total of 24 minutes and was not in the game as the Nuggets grabbed a key rebound off a missed free throw in the waning moments, all but squashing the Warriors’ hopes of a miracle game-tying three-pointer.
Poole described the sentiment in his Rewind:
What happened to the defense so often extolled by coach Mark Jackson? How could point guard Stephen Curry commit such a ghastly isolation turnover in the final minute? Why would David Lee, often the tallest Warrior on the court, stand near the rim but offer no resistance? Why did Harrison Barnes commit the hoops sin of surrendering a 3-point play by touch-fouling a man streaking in for a dunk?
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And, yes, where was 7-foot center Andrew Bogut, the Warriors’ designated rim protector?
The reason was offered by our :
Jackson most likely played Barnes over Bogut so that Barnes could potentially get more isolation opportunities for post-ups against the small-ball lineup the Nuggets were using.
The Warriors head coach was grilled by reporters after the game, but offered this response:
As Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle describes, the Dubs will have to pick up the pieces quickly:
The Warriors (25-15), who had won 11 of their previous 12 games, play at Oklahoma City on Friday and at New Orleans on Saturday. Then, they return home for nine of 11 games before the All-Star break.
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They were slightly out of whack most of the night against Denver (20-18), which scored at least 30 points in three separate quarters and got at least 20 points from four players (Robinson, Ty Lawson, Wilson Chandler and Randy Foye).
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The Warriors yielded a season-high 54.2 percent shooting from the floor and 12-of-24 shooting from three-point range. They gave up a season-high 28 fastbreak points, and they got out- worked on the boards 46-41 – including a career-high 24 from Hickson – as the Warriors were a step slow after their longest layoff of the season.
All in all, an entertaining night at #WarriorsGround:
…plus it was HB’s bobblehead night…
but still a loss. There was a lot on the Warriors’ plate, such as the pre-game trade.
More sights and sounds from #Roaracle:
- Pre-game Jackson on Jordan Crawford
- Bob Myers on Jordan Crawford
- Pre-game view from LetsGoWarriors.com press row seat
- #Warriors 19, #Nuggets 15, Q1, 5:38.
- #Nuggets 35, #Warriors 32, end of Q1.
- #Nuggets 52, #Warriors 45, Q2, 5:11.
- #Nuggets 65, #Warriors 58, halftime.
- #Nuggets 74, #Warriors 67, Q3, 5:58.
- #Nuggets 74, #Warriors 67, Q3, 5:58.
- After review of Evan Fournier’s trey, #Nuggets 91, #Warriors 82, end of Q3.
- #Nuggets 111, #Warriors 105, Q4, 4:22._
- Gonna need some #bobblehead magic. #Nuggets 121, #Warriors 116, Q4, 0:21.0.
- David Lee talks about good teams like the #MiamiHeat having bad nights, but he’s not happy about the #Warriors giving up easy buckets
- Stephen Curry talks about the #Warriors’ acquisition of Jordan Crawford.
- Jordan Crawford’s new uniform in the Warriors’ locker room
- Stephen Curry says he has to get better with his own decision-making and shot selection.
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