The Denver Nuggets started their game against the Golden State Warriors in a bit of a poor rhythm, and they were down by six in a hurry. Coming out of the timeout, they got a couple of buckets in quick succession, and they were within two almost immediately. In the next three minutes, that deficit was erased, and it was a tie ballgame.
Once Klay Thompson came into the game though, Denver couldn’t find an answer for him. He scored 11 points in the blink of an eye, and Denver quickly found themselves down by eight before a pair of triples got them back to within four. Klay said that he didn’t care about your 3-pointers by burying another of his own. Thompson had 16 points in the quarter, and, if it weren’t for an old-fashioned 3-point play by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Denver would have been trailing by nine heading into the second quarter. Denver trailed 36-30 entering the second after withstanding the 50 percent 3-point shooting from Golden State in the period.
In the second quarter, things started a little slow, but the Warriors got things rolling again by feeding Thompson. Everything was running through him, and they couldn’t miss on the offensive end of the floor. The Nuggets were trailing by 15 less than four minutes into the quarter, and Michael Malone was rushing to get the rest of his starting lineup back into the game just to stop the bleeding while Denver was still within reach. With around seven minutes left in the game, there was a timeout on the floor, and Denver was trailing by 13.
Out of the timeout, Denver got a bucket to fall, but they gave up two open shots, and they were now trailing by 16 with just over 5:30 remaining. With the trio of Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope back in the game, Denver had gotten themselves to within 11 again. The duo of Jokic and Jamal Murray got hot for a couple of minutes, and they had gotten the Nuggets to within seven with just over 90 seconds remaining in the half. Denver went on a 14-0 run over the final three minutes of the quarter, and they tied the game at 61 heading into the half. After being down by 16 at one point, they’ll take that all night long.
In the third quarter, the Nuggets did what they had done for much of the year in the third quarter. They just outdid their opponents. In the first five minutes of the quarter, Denver had opened up a double-digit lead, and they had the Warriors scrambling for answers on the defensive end. The Warriors found their answer on the other end in the form of two bad calls on Murray, and Stephen Curry had been gifted five free points at the stripe. After leading by 10, the Nuggets proceeded to give up a 8-2 run, and their lead had been cut to four with five minutes to go in the quarter.
That run for the Warriors continued, and they had tied the game up with around four minutes to go in the third quarter. Luckily for Denver, Curry finally went to the bench with the Nuggets leading by five. The Warriors got to within two after some sloppy possessions by Denver, but the Nuggets had a lineup with a lot of length that was making offense difficult for the Warriors. They got a couple of late buckets to go, and they were leading 91-87 heading into the final period.
The first few minutes of the fourth quarter featured a lot of physical play on both ends of the floor, and neither team was able to get much rolling on offense. Denver got their lead up to five, but they couldn’t extend it from there. With eight minutes remaining in the game, the Warriors called a timeout while down by five. Over the next three minutes, without Gordon or Micheal Porter Jr. on the floor, Denver’s lead had grown to 11 before a layup by Curry forced Malone to call a timeout with 5:31 remaining in the game.
With the Warriors in the bonus, their plan of attack on offense became clear. They were going to run full speed at Denver on every possession and hope that they got the foul call. Trailing by 12, it started working as they were trying to claw their way back with under 3:30 to go. The two sides traded baskets, and the Nuggets were leading 115-103 with 2:00 minutes to go. A dagger alley-oop from Jokic to Gordon with 1:45 remaining in the game looked to be the final nail in the coffin on the night after Curry shot just 1-of-10 from 3-point range. The Warriors emptied their bench down by 14, and that was going to be all she wrote for this one. The benches traded misses over the next couple of minutes, and the Nuggets won by a final score of 119-103 to complete the sweep of the season series.
