| Matchup |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
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36-2 (18-2 Road) |
vs | 14-24 (6-11 HOME) |
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| Details |
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|
January 13, 2016 |
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| Pepsi Center - Denver, CO |
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| 6:00 p.m. PST |
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| CSN Bay Area | KNBR 680 AM | ||||||||
| Blog Buddy: Denver Stiffs | ||||||||
| Projected Starters | ||||||||
| Stephen Curry | G | Emmanuel Mudiay | ||||||
| Klay Thompson | G | Gary Harris | ||||||
|
Brandon Rush |
F | Danilo Gallinari | ||||||
| Harriosn Barnes | F | Darrell Arthur | ||||||
| Andrew Bogut | C | Nikola Jokic | ||||||
| Key Injuries | ||||||||
|
Draymond Green (baller) - Questionable |
Jameer Nelson (hip) - Questionable Wilson Chandler (hip) - Out |
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Sometimes it's easy to forget how spoiled we, as fans of the Golden State Warriors, have become by superb basketball. Night in night out we get to bask in the glory of what basketball can be when played to near perfection: high energy, high efficiency, strong defense, tremendous unselfishness and skilled passing and skilled shooting and good decision making and help from all corners of the court and ends of the bench. And as I sit here watching NBA TV's "Fan Night" matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Pelicans, I thank my lucky stars and wonder whether I'll be awake by the end of writing this article.
The second biggest reason why we are so blessed as fans to watch the best basketball being played on the planet right now, and frankly some of the best basketball that's ever been played, will likely be absent as we watch the Warriors take on the Nuggets in Denver tonight. It's been reported that Draymond Green will take a scheduled and well-deserved two-game break, and frankly it makes these next two games a whole lot more interesting than they would be otherwise.
Green hasn't missed a game since March 28th last year, back when he was just a top three defender, moderate three-point threat, and "heartbeat" of the team. Y'know, back before he was the automatic triple-double he is now. He's so clearly the Warriors' second most important player that it's easy to forget how quickly he leap-frogged Klay Thompson, Andrew Bogut, and Andre Iguodala for that honor. His defensive versatility is critical to the Warriors' success this year just as it was last year, but his playmaking and go-to safety valve for oft-pressured Stephen Curry are perhaps the biggest reasons why they've only lost two freaking games.
Now, when I say these next two games are going to be interesting, I'm not necessarily talking about the game results. If you're going to rest Green, doing so in a back to back against bottom-dwellers Denver and Los Angeles seems pretty safe. The adage that any game is a losable game has proven not to apply to the 2015-2016 Warriors, who only lose games under extraordinary injury and schedule duress. They should be able to handle the Nuggets, who rank bottom five in both offense and defense, even without their fulcrum. Still, one can at least entertain the matchup as a "what if" scenario rather than a foregone conclusion.
And the last time the Warriors beat the Nuggets, just ten days ago, the injury-riddled Warriors needed an epic game from Green and overtime to pull it out. 29 points, 17 rebounds, 14 assists, and 4 steals were needed to overcome the loss of Curry. This time around, the Nuggets, who've for the most part played the Warriors tough this season despite an 0-3 to show for it, have promising Emmanuel Mudiay back in the lineup after missing a month to injury, as well as a back-to-form Danilo Gallinari. The Warriors will also be playing their fourth game in six nights, with a fifth in seventh coming the next day, which...
Ok, I think I've talked myself into legitimately worrying about this game!