Nuggets' offensive struggles continue in third-straight loss to Warriors

The Golden State Warriors have forced perspective on the Denver Nuggets during their dream season. As well as the Nuggets have played this year, their last three meetings against the back-to-back NBA champions are proof of how far there still is to go. On Jan. 15, Golden State smacked Denver by 31 points. On March 8, it cruised to a 17-point win.

Tuesday’s matchup at Oracle Arena was more of the same as the Warriors overwhelmed the Nuggets 116-102 to move two games ahead in the race for the No. 1 seed and take the regular-season series three games to one.

Two days after the Nuggets’ offense fell flat in a home loss to the Wizards, they struggled to find any sort of rhythm in Oakland. The Nuggets shot 37.9% from the field and 7 of 31 from 3. Golden State’s length and athleticism seemed to affect them.

The Warriors led by six after the first quarter and 16 at halftime. Denver, which fell behind by 20 early in the third quarter, never punched back.

It was not a good night for the three most important members of Denver’s young core. Jamal Murray scored 17 but needed 14 shots to get there. Gary Harris, whose numbers this season are down across the board, went just 1 of 9  from the field. Nikola Jokic (10 points and six turnovers) was outclassed by DeMarcus Cousins (28 points on 12-of-17 shooting).

The Nuggets, losers of four of their last six games, now have just a 1 1/2-game lead over the Rockets and two-game lead over the Trail Blazers, who are third and fourth in the West, respectively. Hanging on to a top-two seed will be challenging with Denver’s closing slate. It faces the Spurs on Wednesday before a home and way against Portland, traveling to Utah and hosting Minnesota in the regular-season finale.