Warriors stun Nuggets in OT to win home opener thanks to Curry's 42 points

Steph got the fans involved in the fourth quarter to help break Denver's stretch of dominance against Golden State.

When the Golden State Warriors handily dispatched of the Los Angeles Lakers on the road to start the season, one could make the argument that that game wasn’t a true test despite Luka Doncic putting up a monstrous 43/12/9 stat line. The reason why? Those Lakers didn’t have their leader LeBron James playing.

To make matters more complicated for the Dubs, their home opener last night was against the also LeBron-less Denver Nuggets. Except these Nuggets have a three-time MVP in Nikola Jokic, and the Warriors have had a record of 1-9 against them since eliminating them from the 2022 playoffs.

The Nuggets routinely have beaten the Warriors with a combination of rugged size, timely shooting, and opportunistic defense that shows why they won the 2023 title and are a perennial contender. And whenever Golden State thought they may have survived the wrestling match, the Nuggets would hit a shot so insane it’d make Dub Nation members bang their heads against their coffee tables.

And who can forget last spring when the Nuggets beat the Jimmy Butler Warriors despite missing Jokic, with Aaron Gordon scoring a season high 38 points and Russell Westbrook tallying a triple-double. Embarrassing, and symbolic of how somebody on Denver just always finds a way to have a hot night on these Dubs.

Those Nuggs games have been the biggest referendum on why the Warriors are too small to win again in the Steph Curry era, and are being passed up by younger, hungrier champions.

So last night when Denver’s lead ballooned to as much as 14 in Chase Center, that all too familiar feeling of this just being a bad matchup for the Dubs crept back in. There’s a moment in every tight game like that where you can feel the oxygen getting sucked out of the building. The Warriors were stuck there, trailing late, searching for anything that resembled offensive flow. Possessions were dying in quicksand. The ball movement that usually hums like a well-tuned engine? Sputtering.

Here’s a sequence late in the 4th period with the Dubs down 116-109:

• 3:30 Draymond Green misses 24-foot three point jumper

• 3:26 Jimmy Butler III offensive rebound

• 3:26 Jimmy Butler III misses 32-foot three point jumper

• 3:25 Warriors offensive team rebound

• 3:25 shot clock turnover

YIKES. Thankfully at that point Steph Curry decided he’d seen enough. What happened next wasn’t just basketball. It was leadership transfused into cosmic energy flow.

Watch him work when everyone else has lost the plot. He’s not hunting his shot yet. He’s keeping his dribble alive, probing, attacking angles that don’t exist until he creates them. The defense thinks they have him contained, but Curry’s operating in a different dimension now. Every bounce of the ball is a question he’s asking the defense: Can you stay with me? How long can you hold your breath?

The pick and roll isn’t there. Fine. He’ll just keep dancing. Attacking. Refusing to let the possession die. This is Curry at his most ruthless, when the calm exterior gives way to something primal. He’s not trying to kill you quickly anymore. He’s going to make you chase him until your legs betray you, until someone makes the fatal mistake.

Finally, the foul. Two swishes knockdown the deficit to 116-111 with just over 2:30 to go in the game. 30 seconds later he baits those thirsty Nuggets defenders into another foul, this time from beyond the arc. Boom, a trip to the free throw line for three attempts.

Curry takes his time gathering himself, and you can feel the anxiety radiating from the stands. The crowd isn’t roaring. They’re tense. Uncertain. Tasting their own fear. And Steph? He takes a moment to look around, the game in the balance, the responsibility resting on his shoulders. And in real time he processes what he’s feeling from Dub Nation live in Chase Center.

Suddenly he cocks his head to the side in bemusement and starts motioning with his hands for the crowd to shake those weak sauce vibes off. Get louder. No, louder than that. Keep going! As the rest of the players gathered around the free throw line he stepped all the way past half court demanding the Warriors fans in attendance to push forward through the anxiety and exalt their team in the face of danger.

The crowd sees it. Of course they see it. And something shifts as the building starts to wake up, to remember what it’s supposed to be. Curry feels that energy coming back to him, feeds off it, and calmly knocks down the free throws to keep the team in striking distance. You know 99% of players don’t want a loud ass crowd screaming on THEIR OWN FREE THROWS! Talk about distraction and pressure! Unless you’re Steph damn Curry and you feed on that energy.

Fast forward to Curry drilling a preposterous three pointer to tie the game at 117. He shimmies boldly, his eyes glinting with competitive fire, as the Chase Center crowd explodes and the Nuggets feel the Warriors clawing out of the grave.

But in true Denver fashion, they answered with an improbable three-point bomb from power forward Aaron Gordon to go up 120-117 with 26 seconds to go. OF COURSE. ANOTHER FOURTH QUARTER MIRACLE THREE FOR THE DAMN NUGGETS AGAINST THE WARRIORS HUH? Talk about a dagger, a gut punch, a silencer to the raucous crowd.

Although to be fair Aaron Gordon was balling out of his mind and cashing out on threes all night like he was a young Terry Rozier. If anyone was going to knock down a huge bomb for Denver last night, it was probably gonna be the guy who had FIFTY POINTS and TEN TREYS!!!

But then, whaddya know, Steph answers back 5 seconds later in emphatic fashion with a 34-foot splash that had the entire building on it’s feet and the Nuggets reeling. As the shocked Nuggs staggered back to their bench, Curry mocked their coach for the desperation timeout, and then began screaming “COME ON!” over and over at the exhilarated fans.

He’s not just performing for them. He’s discovered he can harvest their energy, give it back, and create this feedback loop of belief that becomes unstoppable.

This is what separates the greats from the immortals. Curry doesn’t just rise to the moment. He orchestrates it. He understands that basketball at its highest level isn’t player versus player. It’s about creating an unbreakable circuit of trust, competition, and collective will. He gives his energy to the crowd. They return their own. Together, they become something neither could achieve alone. And last night it was about exorcising those Denver demons.

In overtime, that energy was infectious as the Nuggets wilted to a 17-11 run that featured four different Dubs scoring, including Al Horford and Jimmy Butler drilling huge triples before Curry put the kids to bed with a layup and a Night Night celebration.

You want to know why Warriors fans still believe in Curry? It’s because their best player taught them that belief isn’t passive. It’s participatory. It’s a choice you make together, in the most pressurized moments, when everything else has fallen away.

And when Curry motions to the crowd like that, he’s not asking for noise. He’s asking: Are you still with me?

The answer, always, is yes.