Keys for the Warriors to Beat the Nuggets in the West's First Round
1) A Healthy Steph Curry
This is pretty obvious and it sounds like the greatest shooter the planet has ever seen will be good to go for Game 1 on Saturday. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, he is on track to make his return to the court from his foot sprain injury against the Nuggets on Saturday as long as he cleared the team’s scrimmages on Thursday with no issues. That’s exactly what happened as Curry was a full participant for three 6-minute segments.
“His conditioning looks good,” Steve Kerr said about Curry after the scrimmage. Kerr also pointed out that Steph will most likely be on a minutes restriction at least in the beginning of the first round series. Curry didn’t quite agree with that statement from his head coach.
Once Curry gets into a groove and starts to look like his old self (which shouldn’t take too long at all), it’s going to be hard to get him off the floor. Denver is going to have a tough time containing the 2x MVP in that case.
2) Restrain Nikola Jokic as best as you can
As for the 1x MVP (possibly going on 2x), “The Joker” is going to eat against the much smaller Golden State squad. No question. He’s a massive body down on the low block, has a tough fadeaway mid-range that is almost impossible to block, and can stretch the floor out to the three-point line with ease.
The Warriors really only have a few guys that can put up a wall against Jokic. Draymond Green will play most of the game on him and will act as a pest, forcing turnovers and sending trash talk straight into the ears of the Denver superstar during the entire series. With the other possessions when Green isn’t guarding him, those are the most vital of importance.
If GPII or Looney can try to annoy Jokic and get him out of his comfort zone just a few times each game, it can make the biggest difference in the world for the outcome of this series. How can those guys do that? Push him off his spots in single coverage. Cut off his passing angles and give him no air when he picks up his dribble. Focus on those two tasks every time he touches the rock on the offensive side of the floor and the Warriors will be just fine.
3) The Warriors deep bench compared to the Nuggets
No Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr. in this series is a massive (and a bit lucky) draw for the Warriors. If that doesn’t end up being the case and Murray somehow can go, we will be looking at this series in a bit of a different light.
Having Jordan Poole come off the bench is a living nightmare for Denver. You go from dealing with two elite shooters/scorers in Steph Curry and Klay Thompson in the starting lineup just to have one of them subbed out by the Most Improved Player of the Year (he’s already won it in my book)? Yea, good luck with that.
The big question is if the other guys will be stepping up in those key minutes off the bench. Damion Lee, Nemanja Bjelica, Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton II. That group of players don’t have a ton of playoff experience as a whole but have been a major part of the success for Golden State during the regular season. It should translate into the postseason as the Warriors need to get the most possible production out of all of them. That could end up being the deciding factor for the Dubs in this first round series.
Follow Arden Cravalho on Twitter @a_cravalho.
(Photo credit: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)