Copycats no match
Denver learns how far it has to go to catch champs
In a copycat league, the Warriors are accustomed to teams trying to emulate them. The problem for opponents is that the knockoff is seldom as good as the original.
With a promising core of homegrown players and an up-tempo, pass-heavy system, the Nuggets hope to follow Golden State’s example to annual contention. The Warriors reinforced in their 124-114 win Monday night over Denver at Oracle Arena that, for the Nuggets to vault from playoff hopeful to Western Conference threat, they’ll need to do what Golden State did: pair a
potent offense with stingy defense.
Less than three weeks after mustering only 81 points in a loss to Denver, the Warriors shot 48-for-85 (56.5 percent) from the field and 13-for-30 (43.3 percent) from three-point range with Kevin Durant sidelined by a strained right calf. Stephen Curry played through a slightly strained left knee to post 32 points and nine assists. Klay Thompson (19 points on 8for-17) was his typically efficient self, and Draymond Green needed only 12 shots to pour in a season-high 23 points.
“Shots just went in,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “This is more like our team. Actually, I thought we got better shots last game than we did tonight.”
After the Nuggets knotted the game at 69-69 midway through the third quarter on a Mason Plumlee dunk, the Warriors began to create some distance. Late in that period, after Curry drained a pull-up threepointer to put Golden State up 91-77, lip curled and eyebrows raised, he yanked out his mouth guard, shimmied his shoulders, pounded his chest and pointed to the roof.
The Nuggets narrowed their deficit to six points with less than two minutes left, only for Green to hit a layup and make two free throws to help seal their fate. Golden State has won five in a row and 18 of 20.
“We have a lot of tired individuals in that locker room right now because you can’t rest against them,” Denver head coach Mike Malone said. “If you rest, you’re done.”
The Warriors trace their emergence as a contender to the 2013 playoffs, when they beat Denver in six games for their first postseason-series win in six years. Now, with Golden State entrenched as an NBA heavyweight, the Nuggets are trying to implement the Warriors’ blueprint.
Like Golden State, Denver has built mostly through the draft, added role players through shrewd trades and landed a difference-making free agent. Malone, a former Warriors assistant, oversees a movement-heavy offense akin to the one Kerr installed when he took over Golden State in 2014.
Nearly halfway through the season, Denver is on track to snap its five-year playoff drought. It weathered the extended absence of four-time All-Star Paul Millsap (left wrist ligament injury) to arrive in Oakland on Monday sixth in the Western Conference standings.
Perhaps the best win on the Nuggets’ resume is the 96-81 victory over the Warriors on Dec. 23, in which they held the NBA’s most potent offense to 3-for-27 shooting from threepoint range. It was such an uncharacteristic offensive performance that Kerr didn’t even bother to review video of the game the next day.
The Warriors underscored Monday why many consider them the trickiest NBA team to defend in years. Golden State hit 10 of its first 13 shots and had assists on its first 10 field goals. Green, benefiting from the gobs of space the Warriors’ elite shooters afford him, paced Golden State early with eight first-quarter points.
One of the league’s more dynamic offenses in its own right, Denver spread the floor, thrived on open driving lanes and were down seven points at halftime. The issue is that the Nuggets, like almost every other NBA team, can’t rival the Warriors’ depth.
Outside of Trey Lyles’ 21 points, Denver mined only eight points from its bench. Golden State rode big nights from its available All-Stars, but also got timely contributions from reserves Shaun Livingston (11 points on 5-for-7 shooting), David West (10 points, six rebounds, four assists), Jordan Bell (six points, eight rebounds) and Nick Young (eight points).
It was a sobering reminder for a promising club that, for all its progress this season, is still a far cry from the franchise it hopes to become.
“They’re definitely a team on the rise,” Livingston said. “I like what they’re doing.”