The Warriors made a joke of the Nuggets in their own home. They’re back.

Yep, they’re still the best team in the world.

The Golden State Warriors haven’t had the dominant season we’ve come to expect from them just yet. Going into Tuesday night’s game against the Nuggets, they trailed Denver for the first-place spot in the Western Conference by a half-a-game and were still tinkering with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant’s minutes.

Then they played Denver, scored 51 points in the first quarter, and beat the now-second-place Nuggets by 31 points on the road. It was a bulldozing and a statement.

Curry, Durant, and Klay Thompson combined for 89 points on 53 shooting possessions, which is otherworldly. The trio went 18-of-28 from three-point range on a night their opponent made 14 in total, and reminded us why they are still far and away the favorite to win it all.

Oh yeah, and all-star DeMarcus Cousins is set to make his Warriors debut on Friday night. The league has far less parity as the standings may suggest.

If Curry, Thompson, and Durant are hitting, there’s nothing anyone can do

There are some Warriors threes that are preventable. For example, we know by now not to lose sight of Curry, even when he passes out of an isolation situation and it looks like he’s deferring to a teammate.

He’s always on the move, and his endgame is always to take a corner three.

But what are you supposed to do when this goes in:

Or this goes in:

Or when a team’s debatably second-best player can score from here:

And when one of its worst starters is raising the roof after his fourth dunk of the night:

The Warriors are endless.

The Nuggets are really good, but even they aren’t close to the Warriors

Denver is 29-14 a year after missing the playoffs, having built its team from the ground up. Their meteoric rise has been admirable, and it didn’t require any major signing aside from Paul Millsap. Nikola Jokic, a second-round pick, has grown into an MVP-level talent, and the team’s found supplemental steals like Will Barton, Jamal Murray, and Gary Harris at lower-than-expected draft picks. The NBA’s fifth-best team by net rating is a feel-good story.

But Tuesday night reminded us how much better Golden State is from the rest of the field. For Denver to score 111 points and be outscored by 31 says it all. You can’t out-offense the Warriors. And there’s no way to defend them all.

Jokic scored 17 points, Murray tallied 21, and Malik Beasley added 22 on efficient shooting, and it didn’t come close. And no Warriors starters sans Draymond Green even played more than 30 minutes.

It’d been a second since Golden State reminded us of its sheer dominance against the alleged next-best basketball players in the world, but now we fully remember.

Coupling two of the greatest scorers of all-time with another historic shooter and one of the most versatile defenders is cruel. That Golden State is still waiting on the return of a fifth all-star is a crime.

If everything falls into place, it’ll be the third consecutive year where other NBA franchises wonder why they bothered trying. Again.