The short-handed Golden State Warriors were blown out by Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night, losing steam after a hot start en route to a 134-117 loss. Here are three reactions from the Dubs' wholly unsurprising defeat in the Mile High City.
An inevitable blowout loss
Denver broke the game open with a 16-0 run late in the third quarter, finally getting the big lead that seemed like a foregone conclusion given the Warriors were missing two starters and playing their second game in as many nights following Wednesday's ugly overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. But even when Golden State was holding onto a reasonably comfortable lead in the first half, the writing was on the wall for a blowout loss.
Why? Not just because the Warriors couldn't string together stops against Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and company, but because their early three-point shooting was so red hot as to be clearly unsustainable. Golden State started 7-of-10 and went 13-of-21 from deep before intermission overall, outscoring the Nuggets by a whopping 21 points courtesy of the long ball.
The Warriors still trailed 70-69 at halftime, though, Jokic making up for his team's massive three-point shooting discrepancy by deciding it was time to score. He absolutely owned James Wiseman for a pair of consecutive buckets on the block, then made Kevon Looney look nearly as helpless one-on-one.
Denver has the best home record in the league this season. Back-to-backs are especially tough at altitude, obviously, and playing without Green might as well be a death-knell for Golden State against an all-time playmaker like Jokic.
The Warriors' eight third-quarter turnovers certainly contributed to the Nuggets' game-deciding run. Once triples stopped falling at such a ridiculous rate, though, Golden State—which went 6-of-17 from three after halftime—was pretty much bound to ends its three-game road trip with a blowout loss to the top team in the Western Conference.
Jonathan Kuminga, making the defense pay
Michael Malone stuck Jokic and Vlatko Cancar on Kuminga for long stretches of Thursday's game, hoping to keep his most exploitable defenders out of actions involving Steph Curry and Jordan Poole.
That's a strategy the Warriors helped popularize during their initial 2015 title run, when Steve Kerr slotted Andrew Bogut—an elite rim-protector who struggled to move his feet on the perimeter—on Tony Allen against the Memphis Grizzles in the Western Conference Semifinals. Allen, a complete non-shooter who also struggled to finish through traffic, was essentially rendered useless as a result, while the switch left Mike Conley tangling with the likes of Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala as his primary help defender.
The simplest key to beating that defensive gambit, of course, is the wing player being guarded by a slow-footed big making open jumpers and eating up space off the bounce—exactly what Kuminga did from the opening tip against Denver.
Kuminga is just too quick and explosive for Jokic to contain with a runway like this.
Jokic and the Nuggets leave Kuminga open intentionally here, stopping Curry's transition charge and daring a subpar shooter to launch.
What Denver wasn't expecting was Kuminga to let fly with such confidence.
The 20-year-old continued taking what the defense gave him after intermission, whether via more open catch-and-shoot triples or putting his head down for straight-line drives when pressured by bigger defenders at the arc.
Kuminga has flashed improved two-point shot-making of late that hints at his dreams of alpha-dog stardom. Encouraging as that is for his long-term trajectory, far more significant to the Warriors' hopes of making noise in the playoffs this season is Kuminga continuing to thrive as a “finisher”—even when that means hoisting good looks from three or putting the ball on the deck.
Remember this game when the postseason rolls around, and opponents challenge Kuminga to be a scorer. He's not the non-entity offensively a guy like Allen was in the mid-2010s, or even that Iguodala is now when not making plays for teammates.
Jordan Poole's rough go defensively
The Nuggets are the best offensive team in basketball, taking full advantage of Jokic's singular all-court talents and the imminent threat he poses to defenses. Their offensive system revolves around the two-time reigning MVP just as much as the Warriors' does around Curry. Also like Golden State, Denver possesses ample and varied offensive firepower beyond its franchise player.
Point being, the Nuggets are extremely difficult to defend, and would've been for the Warriors even if Draymond Green wasn't a late scratch for Thursday's game with calf tightness. Golden State's porous defense mostly didn't stem from a lack of effort, and sometimes not even a lack of execution. Jokic is just that good, and makes the game easier on his teammates than any player in basketball with the possible exception of Curry.
Still, Poole's individual defensive performance against the Nuggets stuck out for all the wrong reasons, often due to simple carelessness and head-scratching decision-making.
Jokic makes this pass after a post entry to a clearing cutter multiple times per game. It was likely in the Warriors' scouting report, and if it wasn't that's only because it's just so plainly self-evident. Poole seemed surprised by Jokic's dime anyway, turning away from Vlatko Cancar two separate times before getting back-doored for an easy layup.
Poole is targeted by opposing star ball handlers in ball-screen action pretty much every night. He knows how to hedge and recover with the right amount of aggressiveness and precision, but immediately abandoned that schooling on this late first-quarter possession, telegraphing a reach before getting caught on Murray's back for an and-1 floater.
There's not much Poole can do when Murray gets the switch he wants and pulls out his bag of isolation tricks. But Golden State was fully prepared for him to pressure the ball and allow dribble penetration, overloading the strong side of the floor with James Wiseman on the near block.
Poole opts against forcing Murray into help, though, offering tepid one-on-one defense that results in a practice-like step-back jumper.
Michael Porter Jr., Poole's assignment for much of Thursday's game, is a five-alarm shooter away from the ball.
After Porter sets a flare screen for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Poole senses Curry getting caught on the high side and offers help to prevent a backdoor pass from Jokic. But instead of providing that perhaps unnecessary help with a typical tag that would allow him to make a better recovery, Poole opts for a half-hearted back kick, giving Jokic and Porter all the time they need to connect for a catch-and-shoot triple.
Poole will never be a stopper, and Golden State has enough defensive talent elsewhere to survive struggles a lithe guard of his stature largely can't avoid. These mistakes don't fall under that category, though, instead serving as a reflection of Poole's lack of commitment and intensity on that end—season-long trends that should've been nipped in the bud long ago.
Follow Us
Subscribe