The Golden State Warriors' valiant attempt for a Christmas upset at mile high came up just short, ending their winning streak at five games. Here are three in-depth reactions from the Dubs' hard-fought 120-114 loss to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Monday.
Warriors' strength in Christmas numbers
Stephen Curry wasn't himself on Christmas, absolutely hounded by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and a Nuggets defense selling out to stop him. He didn't score until midway through the second quarter and only managed his first make from the field with 2:43 left in the first half. The Dubs took a 54-53 lead into intermission anyway and had a chance to beat Denver late, falling short amid endless trips to the free throw line for Nikola Jokic and struggles to score once Steve Kerr re-inserted Kevon Looney midway through the fourth quarter.
Curry finished with 18 points on 21 shots, missing 10 of his 13 three-point attempts. Klay Thompson finally cooled off, too, similarly inefficient en route to nine points on 3-of-12 from the field, failing to score inside the arc. Those tandem labors from the Splash Bros. would normally spell blowout doom for Golden State.
But five other Warriors scored in double-figures instead, led by Andrew Wiggins' team-high 22 points off the bench. Brandin Podziemski, Jonathan Kuminga, Dario Saric and Chris Paul combined for 53 points, while Jackson-Davis scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting in just 15 minutes.
Moral victories only mean so much for a veteran team that won the title a year and-a-half ago and is still led by the same dynastic core. Curry's performance was anomalous, though, and Thompson has already broken out of an ugly early-season slump. Draymond Green remains away from the team. If the Dubs' championship peak exists this season, they'll only reach it with the supporting cast—and Wiggins specifically—playing like it did in Denver.
Kevon Looney is untenable offensively
Looney came back in the game with 7:25 left, replacing Saric at center as Jackson-Davis sat on the bench. Golden State scored just 10 points over the next five minutes and 20 seconds, the Nuggets committing even more attention to Curry while daring Looney to beat them catching on the roll and around the rim.
Looney played 22 minutes on Monday, tied for his most over the last five games—a timeframe that happens to coincide with Jackson-Davis becoming a permanent member of the rotation. It's hardly surprising Looney was the Warriors' primary center against Denver with Green still suspended. On paper, he's their only semi-effective option checking Jokic, with the heft, anticipation and experience to at least make the Serbian superstar work for his offense.
Like Curry, Jokic was far from his best on Christmas, going just 4-of-12 from the field. But it's not like Looney's stellar individual defense prompted those struggles; Jokic just missed many shots he normally makes. Jackson-Davis, especially, fared better than expected tangling with Jokic, his long arms, quick feet and explosive leaping ability proving at least somewhat of a deterrent.
Kerr clearly didn't believe sticking with Jackson-Davis late was a workable choice defensively, though. How else to explain why Looney got the vast majority of minutes at center down the stretch despite his well-known inability to make defenses pay on the other end?
Compare and contrast what Looney does on these empty ball-screen rolls and deep paint catches to Jackson-Davis in pretty much the exact same scenarios.
It's reductive to submit Golden State definitely leaves Denver with what would've been its best win of the season if Jackson-Davis had been on the floor instead of Looney during the most pivotal stretch of the fourth quarter. With every Looney miss, bobble and pass out from the paint, though, Jackson-Davis' explosive finishing prowess—and the space it creates for the Warriors' offense, just importantly—flashes even brighter.
A tale of two benches
The Nuggets led 26-17 when Jokic went to the bench with 2:11 remaining in the first quarter, out-classing the Warriors on both sides of the ball. The problem for Denver? Jokic leads the NBA with a +24.9 on-off net rating, per Cleaning the Glass, his team completely unable to score without him and failing to compensate on the other end.
That's a long-running trend for the Nuggets, one the Warriors have known all too well during Curry's tenure in the Bay—except for this season, that is. Golden State entered Christmas with Curry owning a -3.7 on-off net rating, the result of its ever-changing lineups as well as a revamped bench unit that's been among the league's best.
Dario Saric, Andrew Wiggins and Chris Paul keyed a game-changing stretch on Monday with both of the two most recent Finals MVPs watching from the sidelines. The Dubs took their first lead on a Paul triple with 8:52 left in the second quarter, prompting Jokic to re-enter on the other side of a Michael Malone timeout. They outscored the Nuggets by 11 points in that five-minute, 19-second stint despite Curry resting, going into halftime with a 28-8 edge in bench points.
Golden State, obviously, isn't the same team it was two years ago, let alone five. But the Warriors' consistent ability to survive and sometimes even thrive sans Curry is a massive development for their hopes of making real noise in the West this season—not to mention the driving force behind an encouraging, if losing, road performance against the reigning champs on a national stage.
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