SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Gordon’s tenth and last made 3 on Thursday night time at Chase Middle felt like the ultimate dagger. It got here with 26 seconds left in regulation, placing the visiting Denver Nuggets up by three and punctuating a profession night time for the Twelfth-year ahead.
However the largest perimeter fireworks present in Gordon’s life occurred to come back in opposition to the best shooter of all time.
5 seconds later, out of a timeout, Stephen Curry stepped right into a semi-contested 34-footer off a display screen and buried it to tie the rating. 5 minutes later, after Curry opened extra time with one other made 3 and closed it with two free throws, the Golden State Warriors completed a 137-131 win to overshadow Gordon’s 50-point masterpiece.
“The larger the second, the extra he rises,” Draymond Inexperienced mentioned of Curry. “He’s this quiet man … however he loves the present. Anytime there’s a present to be placed on, he’s going to do it.”
Gordon’s stat line was jaw-dropping: 50 factors on 17-of-21 capturing and 10-of-11 from 3. He made eight straight 3s to open the sport, one shy of an NBA report.
“Ridiculous,” Curry mentioned. “No matter he did this summer time, it labored.”
Two seasons in the past, Gordon made solely 29% of his 1.9 tried 3s per recreation. Final season, he made a major leap, hitting 43.6% of his 3.4 per recreation.
However Thursday night time’s efficiency was altogether completely different. Gordon had by no means made greater than seven 3s in a recreation. In opposition to the Warriors, he grew to become solely the seventeenth participant in historical past to make 10 3s in a shedding effort. That has occurred to Curry seven instances and no different participant greater than as soon as.
This time, Curry was the one delivering disappointment to quell a particular night time. Curry’s 42 factors — on 14-of-25 capturing and 6 3s — had been the second most he has scored in his 17 house openers. The Warriors struggled when he was off the ground in opposition to the Nuggets however gained his minutes by 15 factors.
“The shot he made to tie it towards the top [of regulation], it’s a shot that solely he could make,” Nuggets coach David Adelman mentioned.
The Warriors’ largest strategic alternative of the night time got here late within the fourth quarter. Throughout a timeout huddle, assistant coaches Terry Stotts and Chris DeMarco prompt to go coach Steve Kerr that he deploy a much bigger lineup of Curry, Jimmy Butler, Jonathan Kuminga, Inexperienced and the newly acquired Al Horford.
It’s a five-man, jumbo-sized grouping (by Warriors’ requirements) that Kerr mentioned he hadn’t even thought of utilizing throughout coaching camp. They’d by no means even practiced collectively.
“The place we going to attain?” Kerr mentioned. “That was my largest concern. Might we execute [offensively]? However [Stotts and DeMarco] jogged my memory we’ve got Steph and Jimmy, and so they’ll discover a option to rating.”
Using a bigger lineup for the usually smaller Warriors allowed them to match up higher defensively, particularly with Horford’s capability to change on the heart place and Kuminga’s continued development as a two-way wing to open his fifth season.
“It was actually enjoyable to observe a bunch that’s by no means performed collectively shut a recreation in opposition to the most effective groups within the league,” Kerr mentioned.
That five-man group erased a seven-point Denver lead within the last 3:50 of regulation and beat the Nuggets by six in extra time.
“I did [previously] suppose that was a risk to be a closing lineup,” Inexperienced mentioned. “Or a beginning lineup. Or a center of the sport lineup.”
The win moved the Warriors to 2-0, gathering some early momentum as they attempt to set up themselves as a professional convention contender within the Denver tier. The Nuggets (0-1) journey house to face the Suns on Saturday night time.