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Warriors Face Tough Test In Daunting Back-to-back Vs. Nuggets, Bucks
Warriors face tough test in daunting back-to-back vs. Nuggets, Bucks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – With less than a month remaining in the 2024-25 NBA regular season, the Warriors have three back-to-backs left to get through.
Their final one is a flight to Phoenix, followed by a home game against the San Antonio Spurs the next day on April 9. The week before, the Warriors play the Lakers in Los Angeles to finish a six-game road trip and then play the Denver Nuggets the next day back at home. First, they will have to take care of business on Monday and Tuesday against the Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks at Chase Center, in that order.
One game at a time. As the Warriors came home from a 4-1 five-game road trip to play seven consecutive games at home, three games stood out more than the rest. Playing the New York Knicks, Nuggets and Bucks – three games in four days against three of the better teams in the NBA – wasn’t going to be easy. But the Warriors continue to be a rejuvenated machine since Jimmy Butler’s arrival.
Golden State extended its win streak to six in a row by beginning the homestand with wins over the Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings, then withstood a rock fight of a win over the Knicks to make it seven in a row. Now comes the daunting task of the back-to-back.
“We’re on a good run, but we know exactly what’s happening,” Steve Kerr said after the Warriors’ win Saturday night. “Nobody else is losing behind us. We’ve got to keep fighting and keep winning. We can’t stop and look around. We’ve got to just continue to improve and we’ll see what happens in the end.
“We know everybody is playing well. The West is just loaded.”
While the No. 6-seeded Warriors have enjoyed a seven-game win streak, the Minnesota Timberwolves (40-29), tied with the Warriors in the standings but one spot behind them because of the tiebreaker, are on an eight-game win streak. The LA Clippers (38-30) only are 1.5 games behind the Warriors and Timberwolves and now are on a three-game win streak.
However, the Warriors on Monday night hope to end a win streak. Not of their own, but of the Nuggets’ own against them.
The last time the Warriors beat the Nuggets was April 27, 2022 in Game 5 of the first round of the playoffs. The last regular-season game the Warriors beat the Nuggets was more than three years ago on March 10, 2022. These two teams looked a lot different back then.
Draymond Green still was out due to injury, and Gary Payton II also was sidelined. The Nuggets were hit even harder.
Jamal Murray missed that entire season. Michael Porter Jr. missed the entire season after playing the first nine games. Bones Hyland, now a fringe NBA player at best, was the Nuggets’ leading scorer off the bench. How far back does Denver’s win streak go against Golden State?
The Nuggets’ second-leading scorer off the bench that game was DeMarcus Cousins in his final NBA season.
What the Warriors have done recently is control the controllables. Wins have come in multiple ways. Some against teams higher in the standings, more often than not against teams lower in the standings in a softer portion of the schedule. Most teams have been without at least one star, like the Knicks not having Karl-Anthony Towns against them on March 4, only to be without Jalen Brunson in San Francisco 11 days later.
Both the Warriors and Nuggets have question marks on Monday night’s injury report. Steph Curry (back) and Quinten Post (right ankle) are questionable. Brandin Podziemski is expected to make his return from lower back soreness Tuesday night against the Bucks after missing five games. Nikola Jokić (right elbow, left ankle), Murray (right ankle) and Aaron Gordon (right calf, left ankle) all are questionable.
Looking to bounce back from a loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Bucks should be at full strength, five weeks after being down Giannis Antetokounmpo when they lost to the Warriors in Milwaukee.
Outlasting the Knicks was a perfect example of how much every small detail matters against teams that have championship aspirations. The same mentality will have to carry over to survive the Nuggets and Bucks on the Warriors’ home court over a 24-hour span.
“The shot making wasn’t there,” Green said Saturday night. “It just wasn’t there for us. So all those other small things matter. Sometimes the shot making can bail you out of some stuff. That’s just kind of the way it goes, especially when you play with Steph Curry. He’ll bail you out fast.
“It wasn’t there for us, and we still found a way. We still did everything we needed to do to ultimately come out with the win. You got to be able to win games like that, and we did.”
The Joker is in a heated battle to become the sixth player ever to win four MVPs. Giannis is the forgotten one in the MVP race, averaging 30.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game. The Warriors have the second-best defensive rating in the league since Butler’s team debut. They were turnover-happy in their previous five wins before playing the Knicks, responding by having 11 turnovers – nine without two shot clock violations – that resulted in eight points.
At a time when the Timberwolves play the Pacers on Monday night and then face the New Orleans Pelicans in two straight games, wins over the Nuggets and Bucks would be huge for the Warriors. It’s what can keep them out of the play-in tournament as they climb up the Western Conference standings. There also is more to this than just the final score.
How they handle adversity, how every possession is full of intent against the Nuggets and Bucks, like they did to beat the Knicks, is what the Warriors can lean on moving forward to complete their three toughest games since bringing Butler into the fold.
