The Warriors take to the road and visit Denver for a Sunday evening matchup with the Nuggets.
MILE HIGH ROAD TRIP The Warriors have enjoyed a dream start to the season. Fourteen wins, no losses, the league leader in several statistical categories, the reigning NBA MVP making an early-season push to keep that award in his grasp … the team has answered every challenge it has encountered in this young season, and up next is a date in Denver. The Sunday evening showdown will be the second of this season’s two meetings between the two teams, and the Dubs won the first matchup 119-104 at Oracle Arena on November 6. Catch the action at 5 p.m. on NBA LEAGUE PASS.
LAST TIME OUT The Dubs broke a tie game with a 17-5 run to close out a 106-94 victory over the Bulls on Friday night in a front of an amped crowd at Oracle Arena. From the 2:30 mark in the first quarter to the final 90 seconds of the game, neither team led by more than six points, and the back-and-forth nature of the game resulted in 18 lead changes and 17 ties, the last of which came midway through the fourth quarter when Stephen Curry knocked down the first of three clutch Warriors 3-pointers during the game-deciding run.
GSW: Kevon Looney (right hip surgery) is out.
DEN: Kenneth Faried (left ankle sprain) is questionable. Joffrey Lauvergne (low back strain), Wilson Chandler (right hip arthroscopic surgery), and Jusuf Nurkic (left patellar tendon repair) are out.
SWEATING IT OUT When you’re the defending NBA champion and have won each game this season, you know you’re going to get your opponent’s best shot each and every night. There’s no doubt that the longer this winning streak goes, the more eager each opponent is to be responsible for the first Warriors defeat of the season. That has been especially true in each of the last four Warriors games. The Nets, Raptors, Clippers and Bulls all gave the Dubs as much as they could handle before the Dubs put together a late run to gain some separation. Sporadic sloppy play from the Dubs has certainly contributed to teams endangering the Warriors’ winning streak, particularly at the beginning of games. But the fact remains that the Warriors are 14-0, and any team that can win 14-straight games at any point of the season is doing plenty right.
DENVER SCOUTING REPORT The Nuggets enter Sunday’s matchup having lost three of their last four games. Denver has been up and down this season, as they won three straight games prior to this latest slide. Danilo Gallinari is having a solid season in the Mile High City with 18 points per game, and he and Kenneth Faried are the veterans on an otherwise young team with possible stars in the making in 19-year-old Emmanuel Mudiay (12.5 ppg, 6.3 apg) and center Nikola Jokic. How soon those players can develop their games will certainly affect whether or not the Nuggets are able to contend for a playoff spot this season.
