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SAN FRANCISCO – For the first six and half minutes of the second quarter, the two biggest superstars of Friday night’s Warriors game against the Denver Nuggets, Steph Curry and Nikola Jokić, were either sitting on the bench or waiting their turn at the scorer’s table.
It was up to their teammates to either carry the load or crumble without them. The Warriors hadn’t beat the Nuggets since the 2022 NBA playoffs. These two teams had played nine games since then, including six on Golden State’s home court at Chase Center, and all nine ended in the Nuggets’ favor.
Behind Curry’s 36 points, the Warriors finally overcame their Denver demons to the roaring tune of a 118-104 win. First, it all began without Curry.
Having to rally back from a 10-point deficit after the first quarter, the second quarter began without Curry and Jokić on the floor. If the Nuggets took advantage of Curry’s absence, the Warriors could have found themselves in an impossible hole to climb out of on the second night of a back-to-back in which they came home from a six-game road trip that spanned two weeks.
Instead, the Warriors opened with a 7-0 run through the first three-plus minutes of the second quarter, bringing them within three points of the Nuggets, prompting a timeout from Denver coach Michael Malone.
The Nuggets didn’t score until more than four minutes had passed in the second quarter. Upping the intensity and finding their second wind, the Warriors’ defense held the Nuggets to only 16 second-quarter points. All season long, opponents have crossed their fingers in hopes of slowing down Denver’s offense just enough, knowing fully stopping them almost never was going to happen.
They shot 35 percent from the field in the second quarter (7 of 20) and went 2 of 10 from 3-point range. What changed?
“Just our physicality,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I thought we got into the ball, were more physical. The first quarter they were just doing anything they wanted. Jokić was incredible. They were hitting everything. Started forcing turnovers.
“We forced 26 for the game,…
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Publish date : 2025-04-05 00:32:00
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