Klay Thompson was splashing 3-pointers. Draymond Inexperienced was making stops and deftly discovering open cutters. Stephen Curry drew a number of defenders any time he touched the ball.
The threesome who redefined basketball en path to profitable a sequence of championships with the Golden State Warriors reunited within the playoffs on Saturday for the primary time since 2019. And as in lots of video games of that period, the high-octane Warriors have been dominant, defeating the Denver Nuggets within the opener of their first-round playoff matchup, 123-107.
In a shock transfer, Curry started the sport on the bench. In his place, Coach Steve Kerr began the third-year guard Jordan Poole, who’s having a profession 12 months. The transfer seemed to be geared toward retaining Curry on a strict minutes restrict. This was his first recreation since March 16, when he injured his left foot in opposition to the Boston Celtics.
The swap paid off. Poole was distinctive in his first profession playoff recreation, scoring 30 factors — a recreation excessive — on 9 for 13 taking pictures, electrifying the Chase Heart crowd in San Francisco.
The final time Curry got here off the bench through the playoffs was Could 1, 2018, the second recreation of the Western Convention semifinals in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans, when he was coming off a knee injury. Saturday in opposition to Denver was solely the third playoff recreation of Curry’s profession during which he performed however didn’t begin.
He entered the competition about midway by the primary quarter to a loud ovation. Nearly instantly, Curry made his presence felt, discovering Thompson for an open 3-pointer from the nook and sneaking a cross between two defenders to an open Inexperienced for a dunk. In any other case, he struggled, taking pictures 5 for 13 from the sphere for 16 factors.
Thompson, in the meantime, regarded just like the participant he was earlier than he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee through the 2019 N.B.A. finals. He moved swiftly to seek out open seems for himself, en route to 5 3-pointers and 19 factors general.
Golden State was capable of flummox Denver’s Nikola Jokic, the favourite to win the Most Beneficial Participant Award, which might be his second. The Warriors always compelled Jokic into tough pictures and annoyed him with a gradual stream of double groups. In addition they tried to tire him out defensively by establishing possessions with him as the first defender on the ballhandler.
By the point the fourth quarter got here round, Jokic regarded exhausted. He completed with 25 factors, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
The playoff opener was a return to the postseason highlight for the core Golden State gamers who received championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Curry, Inexperienced, Thompson and Andre Iguodala are the highest 4 leaders in franchise historical past for postseason video games performed. However this was the primary time, largely due to accidents, that the Warriors had made the playoffs since 2019, when the workforce misplaced within the finals to the Toronto Raptors in six video games. The one time all 4 of them played in the same game this year was on Jan. 9, Thompson’s first recreation again after lacking two seasons with leg accidents. Inexperienced began that recreation solely briefly, to help Thompson, earlier than sitting the remainder of the evening.
Each groups had vital damage points through the season. Inexperienced missed greater than two months of the common season for Golden State with a again damage. For Denver, Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray missed most or all the season.
This was Denver’s fourth straight year making the playoffs; the workforce has made it out of the primary spherical every of the previous three seasons.
The Nuggets will try and tie the seven-game sequence at one recreation apiece on Monday.
