Mile High Magic: Nuggets stun Warriors

DENVER — If you weren’t watching, you’d think tonight’s Nuggets’ win was the best wive’s tale you’ve ever heard.

The Nuggets, missing three starters; Emmanuel Mudiay, Danilo Gallinari, and Kenneth Faried, and key rotation players Wilson Chandler and Darrell Arthur, with only nine active players in total, raced out to a 24-point halftime lead over the Golden State Warriors and never looked back.

Denver shocked the now 46-9 Warriors 132-110 in front of a capacity crowd at Pepsi Center.

“Great win. The thing I’m most proud about is we were without six guys tonight,” Michael Malone said. “Nine players. A lot of young players, and to go out there and play as well as we did. To show the fight as we showed. The confidence. The composure. And to beat a team like that on our homecourt. That’s a character win.”

Nikola Jokic recorded his second career triple-double; 17 points, 21 rebounds and 12 assists. Juancho Hernangomez, starting at power forward, scored 27 points and went 6-9 from three-point range. His previous career high was 14. Jameer Nelson scored 23 points on 9-14 shooting, and Will Barton racked up 24 points in 41 minutes.

“Juancho, he’s unbelievable,” Malone said. “He was out there playing like he was a seasoned vet. Great confidence.”

The Nuggets ended with 24 threes on the night, tying an NBA record.

For Golden State, Kevin Durant led the way with 25 points on 10-16 shooting. Ian Clark chipped in 18 off the bench.

“For me, the biggest thing is that, I’m so excited about the moment, the win and where we are today,” Malone said. “But I’ll be honest I’m a lot more excited about where this team is going. And I think tonight’s game is a great example of that.”

Denver’s first half was one for the record books.

28-49 (57.1 percent) shooting from the field, 16-23 (69.6 percent) from three, their previous high for threes in a game was 18.

Hernangomez and Barton, who combined for 30 first-half points outscored Stephen Curry and Durant, who combined for 29. Jokic out-rebounded the entire Warriors team 13-12. Denver turned the ball over 11 times in the half to Golden State’s six, and still managed to take a 24-point lead, 79-54 into the half.

Against the Warriors, the No. 1 offensive and No. 2 defensive team in the league, it seemed like the Nuggets were staving off the inevitable. Golden State would eventually get hot, Curry, Durant, Green, and Co. would clamp down, flex their muscles out gradually come back on Denver.

For a moment in the third quarter, when Golden State got out to an 11-3 advantage, it looked like that time was near. The Warriors outscored Denver 31-28 in the third.

The Warriors wouldn’t go away quietly. A predominantly bench lineup featuring Briante Weber, Patrick McCaw, Clark, Damian Jones and James Michael McAdoo set Golden State on a 15-2 run to open the fourth to get to within nine.

But a Hernangomez three to put Denver up 18 with a little under five minutes remaining sealed the biggest Nuggets win in recent memory.

“A total team effort,” Barton said. “We knew we were down men. Just wanted to bring a total team effort.”

Postgame

Hernangomez

Jokic

Footnotes

Mudiay (low back pain), Gallinari (left groin strain), Faried (right ankle sprain), and Chandler (illness) were all ruled out prior to tip-off.

Mason Plumlee, who was acquired from Portland Monday morning was not active but with the team.

What’s Next

The Nuggets are home Wednesday against Minnesota before a much needed All-Star break.