SAN FRANCISCO — The crowd at Chase Center wanted to will the Warriors to a comeback Friday night, but the second quarter came back to haunt ‘em.
After trimming a 20-point deficit to a single point in the final period, Dub Nation got to its feet. The ‘DE-FENSE!’ cheers got louder with every made bucket, every steal, every Steph Curry splash. But the Nuggets escaped Chase Center with a 128-123 win over the reigning champs despite some intense final moments.
After Draymond Green knocked down a couple of free throws with 20 seconds remaining, he trapped Bones Hyland with Andrew Wiggins in the corner on the inbounds and forced a ill-advised pass that Jordan Poole scooped up for a score. The Warriors were within one and had a comeback on the mind, but Klay Thompson’s 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left went wide and the Nuggets closed out the victory.
"He’s hit that shot many times," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "I'll take a look at the film. It was a decent look under the circumstances. May be not the best one, but one I’ll definitely live with -- Klay Thompson shooting an open 3, albeit pretty deep."
If the Warriors are gonna get back to the Finals in 2023, the championship core is gonna need some backup. The Warriors experienced a drop-off without their starting five on the floor Friday night. All five starters registered a positive plus/minus, while Moses Moody (+3) was the only reserve who wasn't double digits in the negative.
Kerr pointed to the defense rather than lack of bench production as the key to the loss.
"I think the story of the game was our lack of defensive intensity from the start," Kerr said. "They scored 40 points in the first quarter, so they got in a great rhythm. They were clearly the aggressors."
The franchise is high on its depth this season, as youngsters like Jonathan Kuminga, James Wiseman and Moody are expected to make leaps toward breakout seasons. Free agents JaMychal Green and Donte DiVicincenzo look like good role player fits for Kerr’s rotation. Despite the optimism that this is Golden State’s deepest team in years, there’s still gonna be a learning curve throughout the season.
"They're figuring it out," Draymond said of the second unit. "You're talking two guys in that lineup (DiVincenzo and Green) who have been teammates with the rest of the guys for three weeks, four weeks. It takes time for everything to come together, and quite frankly, second game of the season you're still figuring out rotations. ... They had a rough night tonight. They'll figure it out. They had been great all preseason, so I'm not worried about it."
Steph, Klay, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond and Kevon Looney are championship-tested. The quintet outscored the Nuggets by nine points (45-36) when it was on the floor together, but Denver was able to expose the second unit. The second quarter in particular was an ugly one for the Warriors, who lacked any offensive flow and were slow to rotations.
The Dubs put themselves behind an 8-ball by getting outscored 30-18 in the second period and gave up 70 points in the first half. Despite a third-quarter push from the starters that brought the deficit within seven points, the sloppy second quarter and 19 total turnovers ultimately doomed the Dubs.
"The second-unit stuff, that's gonna all shake out in the next few weeks," Kerr said. "We don't have a set rotation yet. It's affected also by the minutes restriction for Klay and Draymond. That's gonna take a little while to sort out, but I thought the effort overall in the second half was what was lacking in the first."
Poole had a rough game, going 2-of-5 from the field, 0-of-2 from 3-point land for seven points, seven assists and four turnovers with a team-worst minus-20. Wiseman had an efficient game, going 4-of-5 from the field en route to 11 points and five rebounds, but Kuminga and Moody were essentially non-factors. In fact, Moody didn’t play in the first half and Kuminga didn’t play in the second half.
Steph led the Warriors with 34 points on 10-of-22 shooting. Draymond had an impactful game on offense and defense, finishing with 13 points, two rebounds and nine assists.
