Up 2-0, Warriors can’t let guard down as series shifts to Denver
If the Warriors’ rocky regular season taught them anything, it’s that
the team’s momentum can shift in a snap of the fingers.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Golden State Warriors’ Jordan
Poole (3) reacts to a basket by Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson
(11) against the Denver Nuggets in the second quarter of Game 2 of the
team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay
Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Golden State Warriors’ Jordan
Poole (3) reacts to a basket by Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson
(11) against the Denver Nuggets in the second quarter of Game 2 of the
team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay
Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 21, 2022 at 5:30 a.m. | UPDATED: April 21, 2022 at 7:15
a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/04/21/up-2-0-warriors-cant-let-guard-down-as-series-shifts-to-denver/

DENVER – If the Warriors’ rocky regular season taught them anything,
it’s that the team’s momentum can shift in a snap of the fingers.

So while Golden State was riding the high of taking a 2-0 lead in the
first-round series against the Nuggets as the series shifted to Denver
Thursday, coach Steve Kerr cautioned the team not to get too comfortable.

“Everybody’s in a good mood but we’re also very wary of being in a good
mood,” Kerr said Wednesday after practice. “We have to be prepared for
what’s coming.”

What’s on the horizon is the thinner and drier air of the Mile High City
and Nikola Jokic. Both are the worst-kept secrets in being the Nuggets’
lifelines of this series after the Warriors demoralized and disrupted
Denver in the first two games at Chase Center.

The Colorado altitude can take some time for athletes’ bodies to get
used to, and a team – no matter how shorthanded it might be – is never
fully out of a series when it has Jokic, the league’s reigning MVP,
leading its charge.

Draymond Green predicted Jokic would enter Game 2 with vengeance, and
through the first quarter, it seemed Green’s forecast that Jokic was
going to drop 40 points and record 15 assists and rebounds was going to
come true. He drew two quick fouls within the first minute-and-a-half of
the game, effectively doubling the number of free throws he took in Game 1.

But the Warriors’ defense, led by Green, wore Jokic down and Golden
State collectively held the Nuggets to 36.1% from 3-point territory. And
with the Warriors erupting on offense so too did the Nuggets’
camaraderie. Several of Denver’s players were seen having heated
discussions in the second half. And Jokic was so fired up, he was
assessed two technical fouls for separate blowups that resulted in him
being ejected in the fourth quarter.

The intensity of the playoffs continues to rise with each game as teams
get more and more desperate, and Jokic will likely come out Thursday
with guns blazing.

Meanwhile, the Warriors’ greatest strength is its health. After an
injury-raked season, Golden State can finally play its dynastic trio
together with a new star in Jordan Poole earning his way into that mix.

And when Kerr deploys that group together, it’s been a death sentence
for the Nuggets.

The Warriors’ small-ball lineup – “The Lineup,” which still lacks an
official nickname, of Steph Curry, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, Andrew
Wiggins and Green – has played only 11 minutes together this series. But
the Nuggets haven’t found a way to contain Golden State’s three best
shooters, Green’s playmaking abilities or Wiggins’ aggressive drives to
the rim and sound rebounding.

One of the Warriors’ biggest concerns with that lineup was its defensive
identity. The sample size is small, but that group has been effective so
far this series, limiting the Nuggets to an average of just .75 points
per possession while Golden State averages a ridiculous 2.04 points per
possession.

“It’s fun,” Thompson said. “It’s been successful the first two games but
still haven’t done anything yet and gotta build off what we’ve done
though because we have been successful obviously with that lineup.”

Watching that group on the court has players like Nemanja Bjelica
grateful they’re teammates rather than opponents trying to game plan
against the stacked shooting lineup.

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”When you have small lineups like with Steph, JP and Klay, it’s really
hard to play defense with those guys,” he said.

History sides with the Warriors. Golden State is 13-1 in playoff series
they led 2-0 since the turn of the century. Meanwhile, the Nuggets are
0-7 in the postseason after dropping the first two games of the series
during that same timeframe.

Still, the Warriors can’t dwell on the success of their first two games
and get complacent. They have to continue to push the tempo, find ways
to get to stops and limit the Nuggets in transition.

“All it takes is one game and the momentum changes and the mood
changes,” Kerr said. “So we have to be on edge, on guard [Thursday],
ready for their crowd, their energy and for Denver to really bring it
and bring a ton of energy and maybe make some adjustments. We got to be
ready for whatever they decided to change and get out there and get
after it.”

Added Bjelica, “We played really great basketball but we just did what
we’re supposed to do. So the next game is the most important in the series.”

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter