San Francisco, CA – Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry made his first start of the 2022 NBA Playoffs in their Game 5 matchup against the Denver Nuggets. He joined Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green in the first unit.

In the first half, the Warriors and Nuggets went back and forth. They went into halftime knotted up at 48 apiece. At that point, it was still anyone's game. In the third quarter, the Nuggets came out strong and exploited the Warriors' biggest weakness, which is rebounding.

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“I think in that third quarter we went on a run and we cut it to one, and then they ended up pushing it back to eight, but we knew right there that we had gained traction,” Green told ClutchPoints. “We had the game at the pace we wanted to get it at. Then after that, all we needed to do was clean up the rebounds, and once we cleaned up the rebounds, then we were able to get out and push the ball, get some easy stops, and get some cross matches.”

The new three-guard lineup has shown a lot of promise, but as starters on Wednesday, they only played three minutes together to start the game. Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets gave the Warriors issues immediately, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr ended the experiment. Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. got a lot of the fourth quarter minutes, as Poole and Wiggins sat.

The Warriors rolled with the punches and fought back in the final period. The Warriors ended the series and will next face the winner between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Minnesota Timberwolves.