Even at the beginning of the Steve Kerr era in Golden State, road swings featuring matchups against the Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets were hardly easy trips.
The Clippers were led by Chris Paul, the Spurs still had Tony Parker and Tim Duncan and the Nuggets were a tough matchup in the post thanks to the presence of center JaVale McGee. Well, most of that is true.
The point in all of this is that over the last four years, the Golden State Warriors have transformed basketball, winning two of the last three championships and entering the 2017-2018 season as the heaviest title favorites in American sports history. This week’s three-game road trip presented showdowns with the Clippers, Spurs and Nuggets, and on Saturday evening, Kerr’s squad concluded its travels with a third straight blowout win, defeating Denver by a final of 127-108.
Though Golden State didn’t play four straight quarters of outstanding basketball on their second road trip of the season, it hardly mattered to a team that possesses far too much firepower to be kept at bay over a 48-minute stretch. The final score of all three games wouldn’t indicate the Warriors have many flaws, either, as they won each contest in convincing fashion.
After a 28-point win at the Staples Center on Sunday night, Golden State entered San Antonio and promptly fell behind by 19 points in the first quarter. The Warriors recovered, though, eclipsing the Spurs in the third quarter and ultimately winning in a 20-point rout. On Saturday evening, the Warriors were the ones who started fast, jumping out to a 13-point first quarter lead, only to watch the Nuggets go on an extended run and take a six-point lead with four and a half minutes left in the second quarter.
Once the Nuggets took their biggest lead of the night, though, the Warriors took off. Golden State finished the half on a 19-8 run, and then opened the second half on a 16-2 run to put the game out of reach. Less than 10 minutes after Denver had a six-point edge, the Warriors had a 20-point lead and would never look back. A Warriors’ offense that looked a bit slow to start the evening fed off of Draymond Green’s aggressiveness around the hoop and the three-point shooting of Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, both of whom proved too difficult to guard for the Nuggets from beyond the arc.
By the time the Warriors had exerted their dominance, nearly 20 minutes of game time still remained, but a show’s worth of highlights were already on the tape. Center Zaza Pachulia turned in one of the more entertaining possessions of the night, stealing a Nuggets’ pass at the top of the key and then running coast-to-coast to cash it in with a layup. Curry, meanwhile, also turned a Nuggets’ turnover into a bucket when he stole a Denver inbound pass, dribbled to the left corner, nailed a three and was fouled in the process.
While Curry missed the and-one opportunity, he did splash a 26-foot jumper with 90 seconds left in the third quarter and add a free throw after a foul to complete his first four-point play of the season. Curry’s 12-point outburst helped pace the Warriors in their highest-scoring quarter of the season, as they outscored the Nuggets 43-21 to advance their commanding lead.
Though conditioning, fouls and rebounding appeared to be issues for Golden State as it slipped to a 4-3 start, the Warriors have now won six of their last seven to tie the Houston Rockets atop the Western Conference.