There were certainly moments of doubt for the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. Even as late as the final minute of their first-round Game 5 matchup against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference playoffs. But with about 30 seconds left, Steph Curry wanted to put the series to bed.
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Aaron Gordon tried to stop him, but he was left in Steph's wake. Ditto for Monte Morris. Nikola Jokic had five fouls, so he wanted to stay out of the way, too. With a swift drive from the top of the key and a crafty left-handed finish, Steph iced the game, a 102-98 win, and the first playoff series win in Chase Center history.
After he made the dagger, Steph peeped up at the scoreboard clock. Up by five with 29.9 seconds to play. Once he saw that, Steph made the universal sign for bedtime, resting his tilting head on his hands. Just like he did in Game 3. Sweet dreams. On to the second round.
“Steph Curry is one-of-a-kind,” Klay Thompson said. “You’ll probably never see a player like him again.”
No. 30 finished with 30 points, as he put on a masterclass in the second half, when he scored 20 of his points. In all, he went 10-22 from the field and 5-of-11 from 3-point land. But perhaps his most impressive finishes of the night came at the rim, as he also had another key driving layup with about 1:30 remaining.
"He's a lot stronger," Draymond Green said. "When he’s driving to the hole, what teams used to do is bump him off his path. Can't move him anymore. Once he gets his head down and he wants to get to the rim, he’s getting there because you have to overreact to the shot. If you're not pressed up and overreacting to the shot, then he shoots, and good luck."
Steph helped the Warriors gain some footing late in the third quarter when he went on a personal 9-3 run to bring the Dubs within one. No one gets the crowd fired up like Steph. Before that point, the crowd squirmed nervously during timeouts. By the last few minutes of the game, fans didn’t even sit during stoppages.
"It was electric," Curry said. "It was loud. Fourth quarter, you could tell, it was kind of a collective anxiousness in there and a great celebration afterwards. That’s what it’s all about."
Though the Warriors were outrebounded 46-27 through three quarters, they outrebounded the Nuggets 10-4 in the final period – a massive accomplishment given the Warriors lack of interior size. Golden State also benefited from using a box-and-one defense in the second half to throw the Nuggets and Jokic out of whack.
"We knew right there that we had gained the traction," Green said. "We had the game at the pace that we wanted to get it at. After that, all we needed to do was clean up the rebounds. Once we cleaned up the rebounds, then we were able to get out and push the ball and get some easy stuff, get some cross-matches."
Gary Payton II also had a huge night off the bench with his usual in-your-face defense, while he also scored 15 points, with three rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block. Thompson added 15, WIggins had 12 and Green dropped 11, but the team’s defense and rebounding down the stretch turned a 10-point deficit into a 'W'.
This win was three years in the making. Not since the 2019 Western Conference finals had the Warriors felt triumph after a postseason series.
"It's special," Green said. "It feels a lot more familiar than the last two years felt. That’s who we are, that’s why we’ve had the success that we've had. We know how to win games, we know how to win playoff games. We put the work in, we trust in each other and the results show in that."
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that the Warriors – including his stars Curry, Green and Thompson – might have forgot how tough it is to wrap up a series against a playoff opponent.
"We wanted it so bad," Curry said. "Kinda made it a lot more difficult on ourselves. But we still remember how to do it, which is a good feeling."
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