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The Lakers game was epic, maybe the most watched TV game this year, and the Dubs took it to them on their home floor. After 52 points and 12 threes in Memphis, Steph Curry scored 37. That victory got sports media buzzing.
But the best was yet to come. The very next night they faced the Denver Nuggets, a team they haven't beaten in the last 7 tries. The Nuggets had rested their starters specifically to be ready for this game, but both Steph and Jimmy Butler were listed as questionable for the Warriors. Needless to say they both played, as did banged-up Jonathan Kuminga and Gary Payton who returned from the injured list for short minutes.
Denver scored 44 points in the first quarter, most often a fatal blow, though the Dubs scored 34. Then came the second quarter, with Steph and the Nuggets star Jokic on the bench. The Warriors went on a run and defended so ferociously that Denver scored only 16 points in the quarter, and the Dubs doubled that. Like the Lakers game, the Warriors bench proved superior to their opponent.
The starters weren't bad either. Brandin Podziemski scored 26, a night after scoring 27 in LA, both individual highs. And Steph? Just 36, with some delightfully dazzling dancing shots, playing like a demon. So in three games Steph Curry scored a total of 125 points in three different cities, in 4 nights. Draymond and Jimmy Butler were brilliant on both sides of the ball, others like Moody and Post hit key shots, and the Warriors maintained a lead throughout most of the second half.
Though the Warriors moved up in the standings, they are among 6 teams bunched behind Oklahoma City and Houston (though Houston is theoretically vulnerable), all with five games to play. Any loss in those five games could drop a team out of the playoffs and into the play-in, depending on what the other teams did.
Which makes Sunday's game at home against Houston the latest in the most important games of the season. Especially since Houston just beat OKC by a lot, ending their chance to reach 70 wins. In these circumstances the injury report on every team assumes even more importance. But no one can deny that the Warriors are playing inspired basketball now, and that Steph Curry is playing some of the best of his long career. There were times in the past few games when he looked to be playing at a higher speed than anyone else on the court.
Counting Houston ahead, the Warriors will have played four of their potential playoff opponents in a row, and beaten 3 with one to go. The 2025 Warriors are for real.
