Clay Thompson scored 3 points. Draymond Green stopped and deftly found open cutters. Stephen Curry attracted several defenders every time he touched the ball.
The trio, which redefines basketball on the way to winning multiple championships with the Golden State Warriors, reunited in the playoffs on Saturday for the first time since 2019. And as in many games of that era, the high-octane Warriors dominated, beating Denver. at their first-round playoff match, 123-107.
With a surprising move, Curry began the game on the bench. In his place, coach Steve Kerr started third-year guard Jordan Poole, who made the leap this year. This move seems to have kept Curry to a strict time limit. It was his first game since March 16, when he injured his left leg against the Boston Celtics.
The exchange paid off. Poole was outstanding in his first playoff game of his career, scoring 30 points – the highest game – with 9 to 13 shots, electrifying the crowd at the Chase Center in San Francisco. He played as if he had long been a mainstay of post-season basketball. At one point, he danced after scoring a difficult basket. It was such a night. In a team of stars who have played in some of the most talented teams in the history of the league, namely 22-year-old, selected with the 28th draft of 2019, stole the show while Golden State was trying to regain the throne of the NBA.
“Jordan Poole, wow, what a playoff debut,” Thompson told reporters after the game, adding: “We should be very grateful for Jordan’s development and the type of player he has become, because he’s just amazing. I mean, what kind of star is being created. “
The last time Curry came off the bench during the playoffs was on May 1, 2018, the second game of the Western Conference semifinals against the New Orleans Pelicans, when he returned from a knee injury. Saturday’s game against Denver was only the third playoff game in Curry’s career in which he played but did not start.
He entered the race around the middle of the first quarter to a standing ovation. Almost immediately, Curry showed his presence by finding Thompson for an open 3-pointer from the corner and slipping a pass between two defenders to an open Green to score. Otherwise, he struggled, shooting 5 for 13 from the field for 16 points. But his very presence still attracted a lot of attention from the Nuggets and the Warriors overtook Denver by 17 points with Curry on the floor.
“It was nice to feel the atmosphere of the playoffs again and it’s obviously different to get off the bench and try to make the most of the minutes that are appropriate at the moment,” said Curry.
Poole’s strong play is a dilemma – of good looks – for Kerr going forward. With Curry back, can he send Poole to the bench for the rest of the playoffs?
“We will cross this bridge when we reach it,” Kerr said.
Poole’s strong play will give Kerr more opportunities for the rest of the series. On the one hand, he can deploy a team of three guards from Curry, Thompson and Poole – three playmakers and shooters. This is reminiscent of the final small ball squads that the Warriors used at their best during their championship series in the last decade – with the exception of Poole, who plays Andre Iguodala, who now has a smaller role.
An added benefit of Poole’s appearance is that it allows Golden State to alleviate Curry’s growth after a leg injury. Kerr declined to say whether Curry will return from the bench for Match 2 on Monday.
Thompson, meanwhile, looked like the player he was before breaking his left knee anterior cruciate ligament during the 2019 NBA Finals. He moved quickly to find an open vision for himself, on the road to five 3 points and a total 19 points.
“Before the advice, I thought about all the days in the gym, the days in the doctor’s office, the surgery table and then just flying up and down the court, kicking punches and playing solid defense, it was a surreal moment for me,” he said. Thompson after the match.
Denver, on the other hand, will have to return to the drawing board.
Golden State managed to defeat the star of the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic, who is the favorite to win his second prize for the most useful player. The Warriors are constantly forcing Jokic into hard blows and have disappointed him with a steady stream of double teams. They also tried to tire him out in defense by placing possessions as his main defender. After possession after possession, Jokic was sent to face the fast players of Golden State.
“They were just better than us in every aspect of the game,” Jokic said.
But the Warriors also have Green, who won the Defender of the Year award in 2016-17. He managed to do something most defenders can’t do: keep Jokic one-on-one for multiple possessions, freeing his Golden State teammates to stay attached to other Nuggets that Jokic can match.
When the fourth quarter came, Jokic looked exhausted. He finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. He went to the free throw line twice, despite trying 25 shots. Denver looked disappointed with the refereeing.
“I think there were times when, you know, his shirt was taken off a lot,” said Nuggets coach Mike Malone. “So I don’t know. We need to see how they guard it and how we can make them pay for how they guard it. “
When Jokic was asked about the refereeing after the match by a reporter, he said: “Friend, I think I will be fined if I answer.”
The opening of the playoffs was a return to the spotlight after the season for the major players of Golden State, who won championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Curry, Green, Thompson and Iguodala are the first four leaders in the history of the franchise for games played after the season. But it was the first time, largely due to injury, the Warriors have qualified for the playoffs since 2019, when the team lost in the Toronto Raptors finals in six games. The only time the four played in the same game this year was on January 9, Thompson’s first game after missing two seasons due to leg injuries. Green started this game only briefly to support Thompson before sitting down until the end of the night.
Both teams had serious injury problems during the season. Green missed more than two months of the regular season for Golden State with a back injury. For Denver, Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray missed most or all of the season; they can often take the pressure off Jokic for playmaking.
It was the fourth consecutive year for Denver to enter the playoffs; the team manages to get out of the first round each of the last three seasons.
There is a source of consolation for Denver: in each of these series, the Nuggets lost the first game. The Nuggets will try to level a seven-game streak on Monday. But on Saturday night they looked out of place.
“We can’t beat ourselves and the Warriors in the same game,” Malone said. “We did it tonight.”
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