San Francisco — It felt like a playoff atmosphere! The Warriors continued their dominance from beyond the arc as Stephen Curry dropped 36 points in a 118-104 win over the Denver Nuggets. It was a stellar performance by the entire team, who are pushing hard to clinch a playoff spot with just a few games remaining in the regular season.
Before the game, Curry, Jimmy Butler (forearm sprain), and Gary Payton II were all listed as questionable, but all suited up and contributed. Before the game, the veteran players had a candid conversation about managing injuries and the challenges of the back-to-back schedule.
“It was like ‘how y’all feeling? We’re thinking about this’, and I think I can speak for all of us,” Jimmy Butler said on the players only talk. “We realize how important every single one of these games are going down the stretch here. We wanted to compete, we wanted to win for sure on our home floor, get a rhythm going, get everybody back. I think we did our job tonight. As often as you can you want to take the floor, we all want to help win.”
Butler added 19 points, played in his 25th game of the season, and the team is 21-4 in those contests. Brandon Podziemski had an impressive night with 26 points and 8 rebounds. Podziemski has scored 26-plus points in three of the last four games and is averaging 22.3 points (56.9% FG, 61.3% 3FG), 6.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game over that span.
Nikola Jokić scored 33 points, with an explosive 31 coming in the third quarter, but Golden State’s defense clamped down in the fourth, holding him to just 2 points. Draymond Green was phenomenal on the defensive end, effectively containing Jokić down the stretch. The Warriors forced an opponent-season high 26 turnovers (prev. 25, 2/25 vs. CHA).
Tonight’s victory snapped a six-game home losing streak to the Nuggets and ended a nine-game skid against Denver overall. It was the third and final meeting between the Warriors and Nuggets this season, with Golden State dropping the season series 1-2.
Curry posted his third consecutive game with 30 or more points, averaging an impressive 41.7 points over that span. His 192 total points across the last three games mark his highest three-game scoring stretch since November 2022. Tonight also marked his 19th 30-point game of the season. Curry is now just one point shy of tying Reggie Miller (25,279) for 24th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
“Pretty impressive back-to-back,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “I’ve never been a part of a schedule like this where you’re on the road 14 days and then you have a back-to-back at home after the trip. Incredible energy and the crowd was fantastic. After that first quarter we got them under control defensively. Just a brilliant effort from all our guys. I was just amazed at how much juice they had given the travel and the schedule.”
The Warriors improved to 14-0 when starting the lineup of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler III, Moses Moody, and Brandin Podziemski. The 14 consecutive wins mark the longest winning streak this season by any starting five in the NBA, and the second-longest by a starting five in franchise history. It trails only the 20-game streak by the Warriors’ starting unit of Curry, Green, Klay Thompson, Andrew Bogut, and Harrison Barnes from November 13, 2014, to January 25, 2015.
Up Next: The Warriors host the Houston Rockets on Sunday, March 6 (5:30 p.m. PDT).
Photo by GSW/X
