Thursday night offered some serious entertainment value. Whatever you paid, it was worth it, as the Golden State Warriors mounted a fourth-quarter comeback, complete with unreal shotmaking from the hero Steph Curry, to beat the Denver Nuggets 137-131 in overtime.
They withstood 50 points on nearly perfect shooting from Aaron Gordon, as well as a triple-double from superstar Nikola Jokić, and a 25-point, 10-assist performance by Jamal Murray. And with it, the Dubs improved to 2-0 on the season.
Here’s
how Dub Nation watched the game, as viewed through the lens of the Golden State of Mind gamethread comment section.
First quarter: ‘Bad defense’
The Warriors jumped out to a red-hot start, scoring the first 10 points of the game. Then the wheels started to fall off. Golden State got sloppy, and Denver’s offense caught fire as the Nuggets rattled off a 27-8 run. The Dubs would trail 31-27 at the end of the quarter.
Second quarter: ‘Shut off Gordon’s water’
The Nuggets took control of the game in the second quarter, behind Gordon, the Bay Area kid. He had the game of his life, which featured 25 points in the first half … and a perfect 7-for-7 performance from beyond the arc. That pushed Denver’s lead well into the double digits, before a late run by Golden State made it a 70-61 deficit at halftime.
Third quarter: ‘Still the best on earth’
The Warriors came out of the gates firing in the third quarter, as they tend to do. Curry, who had a quiet first half, started to catch fire, and the Warriors used a 19-6 run to take the lead. Denver wasn’t concerned though, and answered back. When the buzzer rang, the score was tied at 94.
Fourth quarter: ‘Curry is phenomenal’
After the teams went back and forth for a while, Gordon caught fire again, and Denver appeared in control. Curry, however, had different plans. He scored the final 13 points of regulation for the Dubs, which included a game-tying three with 1:24 remaining, and an utterly absurd, ridiculously deep triple to tie the contest with just over 20 seconds remaining. That sent the game to overtime, with the teams knotted 120-120.
Overtime: ‘Can hang with anybody!’
As was expected following the momentum shift, the Dubs controlled the extra period. Curry started things off with a three and, after briefly falling behind, the Warriors grabbed control. They put the game away with some strong defensive plays by Jonathan Kuminga, and a dagger three courtesy of Jimmy Butler III.
