Lee Leads Warriors to Slim Victory Over Nuggets

I’m sure both Warrior and Nugget fans are still shaking. I can barely type!

If you missed this game, that’s some bad lucky because this one on a Thursday night in Oracle was a wild one. Tonight, despite a large third-quarter depficet, the Warriors were able to beat the Nuggets 106-105.

In the beginning of this game, all fiveWarriors starters had scored, and the Dubs were off to a lighting fast start. They had the Nuggets standing there while they jumped out to a 17-5 lead, while playing defense very intensely. They opened 6/7 shooting and Klay Thompson opened 3/3, which is always good to see. Although the game was high scoring, it was still fast-paced and very sloppy. At the end of one, the Warriors lead 30-25.

Coming into this game, the Warriors looked like they were very hungry to get the win against this Nugget team. They had already lost twice, and were looking for a much needed win – redemption. With eight minutes left in the second quarter, David Lee had a game-high 13 points, while Jarrett Jack wasn’t far behind him with nine. The Nuggets, however, were able to find their offense in the second quarter, and cut the cap to 45-44 with five minutes left. From there until half-time, the Nuggets went on a 20-6 run. Danilo Gallinari had 15, although he had been struggling in recent games. With one minute left, he and Lee went head to head. At the half, the Warriors found themselves down 60-51.

The start of the dreaded third quarter, was of course terrible, until mid-way through. The Warriors started to pick up their offense, keep fighting, and eventually get some stops down the stretch. The Nuggets had pushed it to double digits, but the Warriors were able to cut their lead down to 13, 73-60 with eight minutes remaining. From then on, the tempo was back and forth, but in the favor of the Warriors. Behind hot shooting from all of the Warriors, they eventually got it down to single digits at four. Stephen Curry’s three pointer ignited the crowd and put everyone on their feet. Of course, Corey Brewer came right back and hit a three pointer of his own. At the end of the quarter, the Warriors trailed 86-78, outscoring the Nuggets by a large margin in the third. Shocking, isn’t it?

Klay Thompson’s first three pointer of the night came at a good time. With nine minutes left in the 4th quarter, the Warriors had the Nuggets’ lead down to three. Behind Lee’s season high, and Thompson’s repertoire of moves to get open shots, the Warriors were able to take the lead 99-97 with 4 minutes left. It seemed like the Warriors had wrapped it up after Curry hit a three pointer, which made the score 102-97. But of course, Ty Lawson got an and-1 shot at the other end. Pretty soon, because of poor defense, the Warriors found themselves in a tie with the Nuggets 102-102. The key stat of this game, so far, was Kenneth Faried’s 5 blocks. Whenever it seemed as if the Warriors were about to pull away, Faried would block a shot, and the Nuggets would score.

After a series of plays, the Nuggets were down 106-103. Iguodala came the other way with 3 seconds, and was fouled quickly by Jarrett Jack. Apparently, 2 seconds after being fouled, Iguodala threw up a prayer shot. He obviously didn’t make it, but the refs decided that it was going to be a shooting foul. Iguodala connected on 2/3 free throws and the after a fight for the rebound, it was decided to be Nuggets’ ball with 3.4 seconds left. A miscommunication for the in bounds pass left the ball rolling out of bounce. The initial call was Nugget’s ball, but after review, it definitely looked like it was off Ty Lawson. Unfortunately, the refs couldn’t see it and rewarded the Nuggets with the ball, with 0.5 seconds left – plenty of time to execute. Andre Iquadala’s three point shot splashed through the bottom of the net and was called good. Luckily for the Warriors, the shot was not good after further review, and the Dubs escaped with a victory. How about that for a win? The Warrior’s leading scorer was Lee with a season-high 31 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists.

The Warriors improve to 9-6 on the season. Their next game is on Saturday, December 1st.