Revisiting each Warriors-Nuggets matchup from this season
Denver Nuggets won 3-of-4 matchups with the Golden State Warriors this
year, but each game had weird circumstances
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA- DECEMBER 28: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry #30 is pressured by Denver Nuggets’ JaMychal Green #0 in the third
quarter of their NBA game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif.,
on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA- DECEMBER 28: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry #30 is pressured by Denver Nuggets’ JaMychal Green #0 in the third
quarter of their NBA game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif.,
on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
By ALEX SIMON | asimon@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 13, 2022 at 1:35 p.m. | UPDATED: April 14, 2022 at 4:23
a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/04/13/revisiting-each-warriors-nuggets-matchup-from-this-season/

It’s been three years since the Warriors were last in the playoffs.

That probably feels like a long time, given their five straight trips to
the NBA Finals right before missing the playoffs in 2020 and losing in
the play-in tournament in 2021.

But even just a decade ago, the idea of the Warriors making the playoffs
was a rarity.

That’s what the core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green
has meant to the Warriors. And as they get ready to try to win their
fourth NBA title together, they will take on the same opponent they
faced in their first-ever playoff series: the Denver Nuggets.

Back in 2013, the 6-seed Warriors took down the 3-seed Nuggets in six
games, with Curry being the leading scorer in all four Warriors wins.
That series also played a part in convincing then-Nugget Andre Iguodala
that the Warriors were a good fit for him in his upcoming free agency,
and a sign-and-trade for Iguodala commenced that summer.

Iguodala is back with Golden State for this playoff run after two
seasons in Memphis and Miami. So is Thompson, who missed two seasons
recovering from major injuries. Green is healthy again, too. It’s Curry
who is currently a question mark, health-wise.

As the Warriors prepare for the Nuggets, the four matchups from the
regular season are worth revisiting — even if to see the circumstances
that leads Steve Kerr to not take as much away from them as they usually
would.

“Given everything, with all the absences and irregularities of some of
the games, it’s hard to get a great read on matchups and exactly how
things will play out,” Kerr said.

- Dec. 28, 2021 in San Francisco: Nuggets 89, Warriors 86

The Warriors were entering the game coming off of the big Christmas Day
win in Phoenix, but they also entered short-handed. COVID protocols kept
Green, Jordan Poole, Damion Lee and Moses Moody out of this game, and
Andrew Wiggins returned from the protocol list for this game.

The short-handed Warriors played sloppy out of the gates, having more
turnovers (eight) than baskets (seven) in the first quarter. Denver led
by 15 after one and was up 24 at halftime. But the Warriors responded
with strong defense in the second half, and a 15-point Curry
fourth-quarter burst and a Gary Payton II dunk tied the game at 84 with
a minute to go.

Denver would answer, as Will Barton rebounded his own miss twice in a
row and finally scored on the third shot, then made two free throws. The
Warriors had a chance to tie it with a 3–pointer after Facundo Campazzo
missed a free throw with 2.4 seconds left, but Iguodala’s 27-footer
missed and the Nuggets got the win.

- Dec. 30, 2021 in Denver: Warriors-Nuggets game postponed for COVID issues

Both teams went to Denver for what was supposed to be the second leg of
a home-and-home series. Golden State was set to get Poole and Moody
back, as each cleared health and safety protocols.

But the Nuggets, who had four players already on the injury report
entering the day of the game, had three more players and head coach
Michael Malone enter health and safety protocols on Thursday, just five
hours before the scheduled tip time. It left Denver with fewer than the
minimum eight players, forcing the league to postpone the game — a
decision that led Green to use Twitter to make sure the world knew he
didn’t agree.

--
Draymond Green
@Money23Green
How do you continue to cancel games when you’ve implemented rules to
prevent this from happening? Is that not a competitive advantage for
other teams? The guys we didn’t have due to the protocol list played no
role in Tuesdays loss? Pick a side but don’t straddle the fence.
1:49 PM · Dec 30, 2021
16.7K Reply Share
--
Draymond Green
@Money23Green
So when the game is rescheduled(which will probably take a day away
from our “break”), we wil play them at full strength… But they got to
sneak a win when we weren’t at full strength, only two days ago??? Let’s
make it make some sense here.
1:54 PM · Dec 30, 2021
13.3K Reply Share
--

- Feb. 16, 2022 in San Francisco: Nuggets 117, Warriors 116

The Warriors entered the final game before the All-Star break having
lost three of four and were still missing Green with a back injury (that
also kept him out of the next two Warriors-Nuggets matchups). But Golden
State looked sharp in this one, taking the lead right away and building
it up to as much as 16 in the third quarter.

The Warriors had seven players reach double-digit points, led by Curry’s
25, but a 35-point, 17-rebound and eight-assist night from Nuggets star
Nikola Jokic and a 22-point effort off the bench from Bryn Forbes kept
Denver in it. With 14.9 seconds left, Monte Morris made a running layup
to give Denver a one-point lead.

Curry went down and made a pull-up jumper through a foul, making the
free throw to give Golden State a two-point lead. But Curry made a rare
defensive mental lapse, hedging off his man to double-team Jokic. The
big man kicked it to a wide-open Morris, who nailed the 3-pointer to
give Denver the buzzer-beating win.

- March 7, 2022 in Denver: Nuggets 131, Warriors 124

The NBA scheduled this makeup game in a weird and tough schedule spot
for both teams.

Golden State played Saturday night in Los Angeles on the third stop on a
three-in-five-nights road trip. They also had a Tuesday home game
against the Clippers, meaning the trip to Denver was the first end of a
back-to-back — and just three days before a return trip to Denver. It
also created a stretch of four games in five days for the Nuggets, with
additional travel.

Given the turnaround, the Warriors had Curry, Thompson, Wiggins and
Payton all skip the quick trip — and then Otto Porter Jr. didn’t dress
because of an illness. But the eight-man Warriors gave Denver all they
could handle, with Poole scoring 32 points, Moody adding 30 of his own
and Kuminga contributing 16.

But a triple-double from Jokic — 32 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists —
helped the red-hot Nuggets hold off Golden State and win for the 10th
time in 11 games. It was the Warriors’ fifth loss in a row (longest
losing streak of the season) and their ninth loss in 11 games.

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- March 10, 2022 in Denver: Warriors 113, Nuggets 102

Both teams won a game in California (Warriors at home over the Clippers
on Tuesday, Nuggets in Sacramento on Wednesday) between the two Denver
matchups. Green was nearing a return for the Warriors, but he missed
this one, meaning he missed all four regular-season games against the
Nuggets.

The Nuggets used a strong second quarter to take a nine-point lead into
half. But thanks to a tweak to go back to his old minutes rotation, a
classic Curry third-quarter explosion happened. Curry went 6-for-9 from
the field, made three 3-pointers and scored 18 points in the third alone
to help Golden State score 37 and take a four-point lead to the fourth.

Denver responded and tied the game with 5:25 left before the teams went
blow-for-blow for the next four minutes. But after three Curry layups in
a row, the last one giving the Warriors a two-point lead, Poole hit
back-to-back 3-pointers to seal the win for Golden State.

Poole finished the night with 21 points and was +29 for the game. Curry
led all players with 34 points, while Thompson and Kuminga scored 18 apiece.

--
Alex Simon