Stephen Curry takes over in the second half and OT, scoring 35 of his 42 points in a comeback win vs. Denver.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors and Nuggets came into this season with a shared goal — try to return to the NBA Finals and prevent an Oklahoma City takeover of the West.
The last two non-OKC West teams to win the title (Warriors in 2022, Nuggets in 2023) shared the floor Thursday and, not surprisingly, delivered compelling basketball that required an extra period.
In the end, the difference-making player was certainly no surprise: Stephen Curry came through in a big way late, diminishing a 50-piece by Aaron Gordon and – for now anyway – gave Golden State an edge over one of the projected contenders in the West.
This is just the start, though, for a conference with a lot to offer. If the next seven months are like this …
Phew. Here are four takeaways from the Warriors’ 137-131 overtime win, and another reason why the West will be fun to watch this season:
1. Curry still cooks, serves up 3s
There was a stretch from the fourth quarter and through overtime where Curry scored 16 straight Warriors points — and outscored the Nuggets by himself. It was vintage Curry, the type of performance he made routine in his prime. Well, maybe his prime might stretch into yet another season.
The dirty little secret is Curry struggled at times last season. That is, struggled to elevate himself to his standard. There were games of inefficiency, where Curry wasn’t the most dangerous shooter on the floor, when he couldn’t pull out a Warriors’ win.
His 3-point percentage dipped below the 40% mark, his 24.5 scoring average was the lowest since 2015 (not counting his injured season of 2020) and the Warriors were finished in the second round for the second straight year.
Which of course is a massive nit-pick for anyone who didn’t see Curry go scorched Earth in the 2024 Paris Olympics, especially the gold medal game. Yes, he still has the touch.
Curry (42 points) wanted Jimmy Butler to do the night-night gesture after Butler’s basket late in OT served up the win.
“Him taking that shot was huge,” Curry said. “Draymond last year when we played Minnesota, he pulled the signature move out. I thought Jimmy was going to do it (this time), but he left me on an island.”
2. Gordon’s 3s are a slam dunk
Aaron Gordon tallied a career-high 50 points in the Nuggets’ season opener, becoming just the sixth player in NBA history to hit that mark in one.
Consider the curious case of Aaron Gordon. He was a solid player in Orlando before arriving in Denver. He was known for two things — never winning the dunk contest despite delivering some of the best performances ever, and earning his stripes as a defensive specialist.
So when he shot 10-for-11 from deep to bolster his 50-point total — the fourth-most points in a season opener in NBA history — that made all the sense in the world, right?
This was perhaps the greatest show of his career (outside the dunk contest; he last scored 40 points eight years ago) and the Warriors had no defense against it. Scary thing: Gordon looked quite comfortable pulling up for those shots, as if he had been doing this all along. Well — Gordon only shot better than 37% twice in his career, the most recent time being last season (43%), when he introduced that shot into his bag.
This was an especially satisfying night if only because the last time we saw Gordon on the floor, he was dragging a leg in Game 7 against Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals. Let’s just say he has recovered.
As for the 50 points? It once matched his uniform number, which has a story behind it. Gordon wore 00 in Orlando. But after losing out on the dunk contest, he defiantly switched to 50 — which is a perfect score in the contest he felt he should’ve won at least twice. He now wears 32.
He’s not giving the 50 points back.
“Whatever he did this summer,” Curry said, “it worked.”
3. Warriors get last laugh against Joker
Nikola Jokic is the best player of the last five years, given he won three Kia MVPs and finished runner-up twice. He opened this season looking helpless in the moment of truth.
His triple-double against the Warriors masked ineffectiveness late in regulation and especially at the fourth-quarter buzzer – when Jokić missed a short shot that would’ve won the contest. Then, in overtime, he missed four of five attempts.
But give the Warriors a salute for that, and especially Draymond Green and Al Horford. It was Green who went solo on Jokić on that fourth-quarter miss; the defense was near-perfect, forcing an off-balance shot.
And Horford, a steady defender for much of his career, kept Joker in check in overtime.
Jokić had 21-13-10 but it was hard-earned. He has said Green plays him better defensively than anyone, and now the Warriors have Horford, another clever defender, and Jimmy Butler III to provide a presence on the help side.
If these teams are matched up in the playoffs, this could be a blueprint for the Warriors against a difference-maker.
4. Nuggets’ hired help will need another game
There’s great anticipation in Denver because of the off-season work put in by the front office. David Adelman was given the head coaching job full time and the staff worked around the stiff salary cap issues to find help for Jokic.
So — in the Nuggets’ season opener, what was the grade?
The summary for now: Jokic had pretty much the same-old around him, with Gordon and Jamal Murray being the most productive, while the newcomers simply blended in against the Warriors.
The goal is for those players — Cam Johnson, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown, a member of the 2023 championship team — is to allow the Nuggets to give Joker a breather without the team falling apart in games, and reduce the wear on Gordon, who had calf and hamstring issues last season, and Murray.
Denver is looking for significant numbers, especially from Johnson; they sacrificed Michael Porter Jr., a solid 3-point shooter, in the trade with Brooklyn. Johnson seemed passive against the Warriors, too willing to yield to others and park himself in the corners.
He took only eight shots in 32 minutes, scoring five points. Hardaway and Brown came off the bench and combined for 14 points and seven rebounds, minimal in a game that went into OT.
Understandably, the process is ongoing. Just the same, the adjustment all three will make over the next 81-plus games bears watching.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can email him here, find his archive here and follow him onTwitter.
