SAN FRANCISCO – Warriors coach Steve Kerr sent a message to his team as soon as it was known the Denver Nuggets would be without three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun on Monday night at Chase Center: Don’t let up.
These are the kind of games teams mentally can be duped, losing focus and playing lackadaisical, while players on a shorthanded squad jump at a golden opportunity. There was no pressure on the Nuggets. Kerr has seen this story unfold countless times, which was the exact result of the Warriors’ seven-game winning streak ending with an ugly 114-105 loss at Chase Center.
“We played poorly out of the gate and never found rhythm,” Kerr said. “They played great. The right team won. We didn’t deserve that. We were awful.”
Body language was bad from the start. Execution was worse. The ramifications made the loss massive.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, tied with the Warriors in the standings but behind them because of the tiebreaker, lost to an Indiana Pacers team without their top players in overtime. The Memphis Grizzlies lost to the Sacramento Kings. A win would have put the sixth-seeded Warriors within striking distance of getting to as high as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.
It also would have set up a chance for the Warriors to win the tiebreaker with the Nuggets in their final matchup on April 4.
Now, the Warriors find themselves hanging on by a thread to stay out of the NBA play-in tournament one night before playing Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks on the second night of a back-to-back.
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The Warriors have gone 1,103 days since their last regular-season win against the Nuggets on March 10, 2022. Their last regular-season home win against Denver was nearly a year before that on April 23, 2021. Mychal Mulder was Steph Curry’s starting backcourt mate in that game. Nico Mannion and Alen Smailagić played the final two minutes.
Yes, it has been that long.
This was the Warriors’ best chance to finally take down Denver in the regular season. Coach Mike Malone decided to sit three of the Nuggets’ top five players on the first night of back-to-back, likely saving them to play the Los Angeles Lakers the next night. The decision to give Golden State the ultimate trap game worked.
“They just had guys that played a lot harder than we did tonight,” Curry said. “And as much as we tried to come back, every time we made a run it was like, ‘Oh, you’re down eight, you’re down 10, you’re down 12,’ as opposed to really threatening them with a real comeback.”
Turnovers are the first stat that Kerr and his players pointed out as the main reason for the loss. The Warriors tallied 20 turnovers, which resulted in 24 points for the Nuggets. On a night where the Warriors were ice-cold from long distance, going 8 of 33 (24.2 percent) on 3-pointers, and also struggled at the free-throw line by missing 12 of their 27 attempts (55.6 percent), every possession felt vital.
Yet every possession also felt careless by the red-hot Warriors.
“Whenever we have the amount of turnovers we did,” Curry said, “and not even the amount, but the type – that can’t happen. Obviously that starts with me.”
Curry logged a season-high seven turnovers in a game where he went 6 of 21 from the field and was 4 of 14 behind the 3-point line.
The Warriors cut the deficit to six points with two minutes left. Draymond Green intercepted Aaron Gordon’s in-bound pass and immediately found Curry, who was off to the races before a bizarre turnover. Curry thought Jonathan Kuminga was about to cut to the basket, leading him to toss an alley-oop pass that went out of bounds with the two teammates not in sync. Game over.
That scene summed up Curry and the Warriors’ night. Curry came into the day questionable because of lower back soreness. Judging from his postgame press conference, Curry also is battling a bit of a cold. Kerr had the option of resting Curry, but everything in front of them showed this was the game to take advantage of, making the second night of their back-to-back an added bonus.
Instead, Kerr called Curry “exhausted” after carrying the Warriors for so long, and that the team “absolutely” has to consider sitting him against the Bucks. The first teammate to come to his defense was his newest, too.
“I’m not going to say he’s wearing down, but it’s OK to be tired,” Jimmy Butler said. “That’s on myself, and that’s on us as a unit to pick up the slack for him. As [much as] everybody wants to think he’s superhuman, he is not. He is our leader and we must protect him at all times.
“I will tell you that. That’s on myself, for sure, and everybody else to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing and give my man a break.”
Every streak comes to an end. A bad loss is bound to happen. But all the circumstances surrounding the Warriors’ loss only amplified the disappointment.
The Warriors now have lost two games in the 16 that Butler has played for them. Monday night easily was the most frustrating. With or without Curry, the Warriors know they have to wash the sour taste out of their mouth and flush their latest loss to the Nuggets down the drain.
“We know that we have to be better. We know that we will be better,” Butler said. “We’re expected to win every game here on out. We are. We put this behind us knowing that we can be better, and we will be.”
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