The Denver Nuggets are doing what the Nuggets do when everything is clicking, and it is a beautiful and devastating thing to watch depending on which jersey you are rooting for. Their 116-93 demolition of the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night extended their winning streak to six consecutive games and served as the most emphatic possible statement about this team’s championship-level capabilities when Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are operating in full partnership.
Jokic’s presence does not always announce itself in the box score the way a conventional superstar’s might. The Joker works through gravity, through positioning, through the passes that create the shots that win the games. The Nuggets shot an extraordinary 47.5 percent from three-point range on 40 attempts, converting 19 threes in a performance that had Golden State’s defense completely overwhelmed. When Denver is making shots at that rate and Jokic is orchestrating the offense, the team’s offensive efficiency becomes almost impossible to defend.
Jamal Murray added 20 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds in a 58.3 percent shooting performance that complemented Jokic’s impact beautifully, with Tim Hardaway Jr. contributing 16 points and 4 assists off the bench in one of his better performances of the season.
For Golden State, the absence of Steph Curry continues to define a difficult stretch of their season. The Warriors without Curry are a fundamentally different team, lacking the offensive gravity and shooting threat that makes their entire system function at its highest level. Kristaps Porzingis scored a team-high 23 points in the loss but there was simply no mechanism available to reverse the momentum that Denver built from the third quarter onward, when the Nuggets outscored the Warriors 40-21 to turn a competitive game into a rout.
Six straight wins. Jokic orchestrating. Murray delivering. Denver is absolutely dangerous.
