Revisiting each Warriors-Nuggets matchup from this season

The Nuggets won three of the four matchups this regular season, but the Warriors didn't have Draymond Green for any of the games.

It’s been three years since the Warriors were last in the playoffs.

That probably feels like a long time, given their five straight trips to the NBA Finals right before missing the playoffs in 2020 and losing in the play-in tournament in 2021.

But even just a decade ago, the idea of the Warriors making the playoffs was a rarity.

That’s what the core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green has meant to the Warriors. And as they get ready to try to win their fourth NBA title together, they will take on the same opponent they faced in their first-ever playoff series: the Denver Nuggets.

Back in 2013, the 6-seed Warriors took down the 3-seed Nuggets in six games, with Curry being the leading scorer in all four Warriors wins. That series also played a part in convincing then-Nugget Andre Iguodala that the Warriors were a good fit for him in his upcoming free agency, and a sign-and-trade for Iguodala commenced that summer.

Iguodala is back with Golden State for this playoff run after two seasons in Memphis and Miami. So is Thompson, who missed two seasons recovering from major injuries. Green is healthy again, too. It’s Curry who is currently a question mark, health-wise.

As the Warriors prepare for the Nuggets, the four matchups from the regular season are worth revisiting — even if to see the circumstances that leads Steve Kerr to not take as much away from them as they usually would.

“Given everything, with all the absences and irregularities of some of the games, it’s hard to get a great read on matchups and exactly how things will play out,” Kerr said.

Dec. 28, 2021 in San Francisco: Nuggets 89, Warriors 86

The Warriors were entering the game coming off of the big Christmas Day win in Phoenix, but they also entered short-handed. COVID protocols kept Green, Jordan Poole, Damion Lee and Moses Moody out of this game, and Andrew Wiggins returned from the protocol list for this game.

The short-handed Warriors played sloppy out of the gates, having more turnovers (eight) than baskets (seven) in the first quarter. Denver led by 15 after one and was up 24 at halftime. But the Warriors responded with strong defense in the second half, and a 15-point Curry fourth-quarter burst and a Gary Payton II dunk tied the game at 84 with a minute to go.

Denver would answer, as Will Barton rebounded his own miss twice in a row and finally scored on the third shot, then made two free throws. The Warriors had a chance to tie it with a 3–pointer after Facundo Campazzo missed a free throw with 2.4 seconds left, but Iguodala’s 27-footer missed and the Nuggets got the win.

Dec. 30, 2021 in Denver: Warriors-Nuggets game postponed for COVID issues

Both teams went to Denver for what was supposed to be the second leg of a home-and-home series. Golden State was set to get Poole and Moody back, as each cleared health and safety protocols.

But the Nuggets, who had four players already on the injury report entering the day of the game, had three more players and head coach Michael Malone enter health and safety protocols on Thursday, just five hours before the scheduled tip time. It left Denver with fewer than the minimum eight players, forcing the league to postpone the game — a decision that led Green to use Twitter to make sure the world knew he didn’t agree.

How do you continue to cancel games when you’ve implemented rules to prevent this from happening? Is that not a competitive advantage for other teams? The guys we didn’t have due to the protocol list played no role in Tuesdays loss? Pick a side but don’t straddle the fence.

— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) December 30, 2021

So when the game is rescheduled(which will probably take a day away from our “break”), we wil play them at full strength… But they got to sneak a win when we weren’t at full strength, only two days ago??? Let’s make it make some sense here.

— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) December 30, 2021

Feb. 16, 2022 in San Francisco: Nuggets 117, Warriors 116

The Warriors entered the final game before the All-Star break having lost three of four and were still missing Green with a back injury (that also kept him out of the next two Warriors-Nuggets matchups). But Golden State looked sharp in this one, taking the lead right away and building it up to as much as 16 in the third quarter.

The Warriors had seven players reach double-digit points, led by Curry’s 25, but a 35-point, 17-rebound and eight-assist night from Nuggets star Nikola Jokic and a 22-point effort off the bench from Bryn Forbes kept Denver in it. With 14.9 seconds left, Monte Morris made a running layup to give Denver a one-point lead.

Curry went down and made a pull-up jumper through a foul, making the free throw to give Golden State a two-point lead. But Curry made a rare defensive mental lapse, hedging off his man to double-team Jokic. The big man kicked it to a wide-open Morris, who nailed the 3-pointer to give Denver the buzzer-beating win.

March 7, 2022 in Denver: Nuggets 131, Warriors 124

The NBA scheduled this makeup game in a weird and tough schedule spot for both teams.

Golden State played Saturday night in Los Angeles on the third stop on a three-in-five-nights road trip. They also had a Tuesday home game against the Clippers, meaning the trip to Denver was the first end of a back-to-back — and just three days before a return trip to Denver. It also created a stretch of four games in five days for the Nuggets, with additional travel.

Given the turnaround, the Warriors had Curry, Thompson, Wiggins and Payton all skip the quick trip — and then Otto Porter Jr. didn’t dress because of an illness. But the eight-man Warriors gave Denver all they could handle, with Poole scoring 32 points, Moody adding 30 of his own and Kuminga contributing 16.

But a triple-double from Jokic — 32 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists — helped the red-hot Nuggets hold off Golden State and win for the 10th time in 11 games. It was the Warriors’ fifth loss in a row (longest losing streak of the season) and their ninth loss in 11 games.

March 10, 2022 in Denver: Warriors 113, Nuggets 102

Both teams won a game in California (Warriors at home over the Clippers on Tuesday, Nuggets in Sacramento on Wednesday) between the two Denver matchups. Green was nearing a return for the Warriors, but he missed this one, meaning he missed all four regular-season games against the Nuggets.

The Nuggets used a strong second quarter to take a nine-point lead into half. But thanks to a tweak to go back to his old minutes rotation, a classic Curry third-quarter explosion happened. Curry went 6-for-9 from the field, made three 3-pointers and scored 18 points in the third alone to help Golden State score 37 and take a four-point lead to the fourth.

Denver responded and tied the game with 5:25 left before the teams went blow-for-blow for the next four minutes. But after three Curry layups in a row, the last one giving the Warriors a two-point lead, Poole hit back-to-back 3-pointers to seal the win for Golden State.

Poole finished the night with 21 points and was +29 for the game. Curry led all players with 34 points, while Thompson and Kuminga scored 18 apiece.