SAN FRANCISCO — — The All-Star break has rejuvenated the defending champions Denver Nuggets.
Not only have they arrested a three-game slide entering the mid-season classic, they’ve just have won three in a row.
And the third win proved to be the charm as Nikola Jokic had another typical day in the office with a triple-double performance that carried Denver past the pesky Golden State Warriors, 119-103, on Sunday at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Jokic also piled 16 rebounds and 16 assists for his third straight triple-double and 18th of the season.
“We had three losses before All-Star break now we have three wins. It’s how the game is, a game of runs. In season you have a good period, bad period, you want to have a longer good period than bad and a short bad period,” Jokic said.
As the Nuggets brace for another deep playoffs run in hopes of defending their title, head coach Mike Malone was pleased with how his team appears to be rounding to championships form.
“I think we kind of flipped the switch and we became the aggressor on both ends and stopped thinking and started playing with an attack mindset and an aggressive mindset, and I think that’s when we’re at our best.”
Jamal Murray had 27 points and four assists and Aaron Gordon pitched in 17 and 6 rebounds. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Michael Porter Jr combined for 22 points and Denver hit 11-of-32 threes to beat the Warriors (11-of-34) at their own game.
Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 23 points while Curry, who clunked his first seven 3-point attempts, finished with 20. Jonathen Kuminga soared for 19 points and six rebounds and Draymond Green settled for 7 points and 5 boards.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr lamented his team’s erratic effort.
“I thought we had two or three offensive possessions where we didn’t get organized and we got stagnant. And that hurt our flow. We were in a good rhythm until then and the pace slowed down. So we needed to get better organized offensively. And then they hit some tough shots.”
Through the tough loss, a silver lining emerged as Kevon Looney played his 284th consecutive game in both regular season and playoffs, matching Neil Johnston for fifth-longest such streak in franchise history.
