DENVER (AP) – The Golden State Warriors proved they’re good counter punchers, withstanding a fired-up Denver Nuggets team that finally took the fight to them instead of the officials and each other.
Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole scored 27 points each, Klay Thompson made six three-pointers on his way to 26 points and the Warriors muscled past the Nuggets 118-113 on Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in their playoff series. “It’s a Poole party!” Thompson hollered as he interrupted Poole’s post-game television interview.
Draymond Green added a key steal from Nikola Jokic, who finished with 37 points and 18 rebounds, in the final minute and the Warriors closed on a 9-2 run to put the Nuggets on the cusp of elimination.
“We played great down the stretch on both” ends of the court, Thompson said.
Andrew Wiggins hit a second-chance three-pointer to put Golden State ahead for good 112-111, and Green, who played the final four minutes with five fouls, came up big by poking the ball away from Jokic with 40 seconds left.
“For Draymond to battle him all night and to make that play in the end was just a huge part of the win,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
NBA teams in a 3-0 hole are 0-143 all-time in the playoffs, and Golden State can sweep the series tomorrow in Denver.
After two blowouts in San Francisco, Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, “I know that this sounds weird because it was a loss and there are no moral victories, I get that.
“But we gave ourselves a chance tonight. We didn’t do that in Golden State. We put ourselves in a position late to beat a very good basketball team.”
After the Nuggets bickered with each other on the bench and Jokic got ejected for hollering at an official in Game 2, they stuck together and stayed in this game until the end.
