Golden State Warriors @ Denver Nuggets 03/13/2015

With their status as one of the best overall teams in the NBA firmly cemented, the Golden State Warriors (51-12) entered the Pepsi Center on Friday night for their sole road venture of the season against the Denver Nuggets (24-41).
Although the Nuggets' season had been fairly miserable thus far, their fortunes had turned around as of late, as they had emerged as the victor in four of their previous six contests.
Nevertheless, Warriors' coach Steve Kerr was not incredibly concerned, as he and his coaching staff made the bold decision to rest four of their most vital pieces: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Andrew Bogut.
Golden State would definitely have their hands full on this night.
With Marreese Speights serving a one-game suspension for reckless driving, the Warriors would have only nine available players in tonight's game: Shaun Livingston, Justin Holiday, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, David Lee, Leandro Barbosa, Festus Ezeli, James Michael McAdoo, and Brandon Rush.
However, despite a rocky first half, the resilient Warriors fought back aggressively, outscoring the Nuggets 29-20 in the third to take an 83-82 lead into the fourth quarter.
Much of their success in adapting to such a difficult situation can likely be attributed to the outstanding coaching of Steve Kerr and his staff, who made all of the rights moves to help the team thrive during incredible adversity.
Unfortunately, however, lacking five of their most significant players, Golden State was simply unable to maintain their slim lead down the stretch.
Predictably, Denver fought back with a vengeance. As a result of a poor fourth quarter performance, the Nuggets ran away with a 114-103 victory over the Warriors this evening.
On the bright side, Justin Holiday made his presence known for Golden State, dropping a career-high 23 points in a losing effort.
The Warriors will seek to rebound from this loss in tomorrow night's game against the New York Knicks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 NBA Finals: Game Four

After being massacred at Quicken Loans Arena in Game Three of the NBA Finals on Wednesday evening, the Golden State Warriors strolled into enemy territory once more on Friday, seeking a confidence-renewing victory. With a win tonight, the Western Conference Champion Warriors could propel themselves to a nearly insurmountable 3-1 series advantage, while pushing the Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers to the brink of elimination. As the game progressed, however, it became clear that Cleveland's aforementioned victory had done wonders for their confidence, whilst Golden State was poised to rebound and shut the door on a rather animated Cavalier rally. Game Four would quickly become the most tightly-contested game of the 2016 NBA Finals thus far. With tempers aflame and the stakes ever-increasing, both the Warriors and Cavaliers would come out firing, in relentless pursuit of a momentum-shifting victory. At the conclusion of the first quarter, Golden State would hold
Read more

A's Win First Postseason Series Since 2006, Will Face Astros in ALDS

Image
Despite falling to the Chicago White Sox in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, the Oakland Athletics rebounded with consecutive wins in Games 2 and 3 to snag their first postseason series victory in 14 years, advancing to the ALDS for the first time since 2013. After digging a 3-0 hole in Thursday's decisive Game 3, Oakland rallied with four runs in the fourth inning to take the lead. However, their biggest hit of the afternoon came in the bottom of the fifth, with the score tied 4-4. In perhaps the most crucial plate appearance of his life, Chad Pinder stepped to the plate with an opportunity to defy history. Prior to this at-bat, Pinder had posted a 2-for-35 career mark with the bases loaded. However, on Thursday, he came up with a massive two-run single to propel the A's to a 6-4 advantage. And they didn't look back. Oakland now looks forward to a best-of-5 series with the Houston Astros to be played on neutral ground at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Needless to say, th
Read more

Why Quidditch Is Totally Ridiculous (Yet We Still Love It)

Image
On June 26, 1997,  Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling introduced the world to a remarkable new sport called Quidditch. In theory, Rowling's invention is fairly simple. For those who are unfamiliar with the game, I will provide a brief description of its rules.  Quidditch is played in a 7-on-7 format on flying broomsticks. Each team features three "Chasers" who attempt to throw a large ball (called the Quaffle) past the opposing team's "Keeper" into one of three circular hoops.  Every time the Chasers succeed in beating the Keeper, their team is awarded 10 points. Meanwhile, there are a pair of bat-wielding "Beaters" on each team who add to the chaos by clubbing two smaller balls (called Bludgers) at their opposition. However, the most important position on the field is that of the "Seeker", which is Harry Potter's position on Gryffindor's Quidditch team during his time at Hogwarts.  Each team has one Seeker who scours t
Read more