3 observations from Warriors’ victory over Nuggets in Game 3
The Golden State Warriors took their 2-0 first-round series lead on the road to visit the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night. Golden State hoped to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. Denver intended to get back into the series and avoid the dreaded 3-0 deficit. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Jordan Poole combined to score 80 points en route to a 3-0 stranglehold in the series.
Jordan Poole scored 27 points on 13 shots, and accumulated 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
Klay Thompson notched 26 points on 18 field goal attempts, 13 of which were triples.
Stephen Curry scored 27 points on 17 field goal attempts and accumulated 6 assists off the Warriors’ bench.
Here are 3 observations from Golden State’s critical victory.
The Warriors overwhelmed the Nuggets with ball movement in the first half
Both teams shot better than 50% from the floor in the first half. Nikola Jokic only had 2 assists at the intermission. Yet, the Nuggets treaded water with ball movement in the first half.
The problem was that the Nuggets couldn’t do anything to restrict Golden State’s passing. The Warriors registered 19 first-half assists on 27 made field goals en route to a field goal percentage of 67.5% in the first half.
Aside from a bit of carelessness with the ball (9 turnovers before halftime), you can’t ask for much better efficiency than that on the offensive end of the floor.
Golden State's turnover issues sparked Denver's passing in 3rd quarter
Jokic started putting up box score numbers much more in line with his status, racking up 3 assists in the 3rd quarter. Golden State made his life easier with a number of unforced errors in the quarter following intermission.
It wasn’t necessarily of the live-ball variety. But the point, regardless of live-ball or dead-ball, is that the Warriors either gave their foes a chance to run in transition or get more possessions against set defense. If you give Jokic enough possessions, he’ll find rhythm. If he finds rhythm, he’s going to be effective in more than one play style and the Nuggets are going to get good looks from his being an offensive hub.
Denver got some great looks at the basket in the third quarter, and they got back into the game from that ball movement.
Warriors pick apart Nuggets' drop coverage
With Jokic lacking the mobility to guard in space, the Nuggets opted for a shallow drop coverage slightly below the level of the ball screen. That, of course, means that they bet against Golden State’s ability to make shots moving through very small pockets of space beyond the screen.
But, they bet wrong. Stephen Curry splashed a pull-up triple in that space. Curry then cracked ball pressure to get to the rim or create chaos in the paint to facilitate other plays.
The final nail in Denver’s coffin was a crossover and drive from Curry to get the ball behind Jokic before finishing at the rim as the MVP favorite hopelessly chased him.
The Warriors will look to finish the series sweep on Sunday in Denver. Tip-off is set for 3:30 PM, Eastern time. You can catch the action on ABC.
