‘Warriors WrapUp’: Comfortable win over Nuggets 127-119; Expectations now too high for Golden State; shot distribution among Durant, Curry, Thompson remains consistent

Another game, another win for the Warriors. To be honest, many of these Golden State wins are beginning to resemble lots of other Golden State wins. They don’t play great, they don’t play poorly, they just play well enough to handle an opponent with ease at Oracle Arena.

The Warriors beat the Nuggets 127-119 on Monday night in a game where they led by as many as 15, but spent most of the night up anywhere from eight to 14 points. Of course, the game never got close enough for nails to get bitten, but it never got lopsided enough for the second unit to log significant minutes.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp” on 95.7-FM The Game.

A big theme afterwards was how the Warriors are being taken for granted. It’s gotten to the point where they’re now the first team in NBA history to win 30 of their first 35 games three consecutive years. Pretty impressive, on the one hand. On the other, we ask the question: Aren’t we becoming numb to al these incredible stats

–The Warriors have almost put themselves in a  position where they cannot meet — let along exceed — expectations. At least not now, not in early January with a win over a team that’s five games under. Whether a hard-core fan or newbie the one thing all Warriors fans seem to agree on at this point is June can’t come fast enough.

What? You say there’s no guarantee the Warriors will be playing in June. That’s almost unfathomable to the Warriors’ fan base right now. The season is going to come down to whether or not the Warriors win their last game of the season. If they do, it will have been a great year; if they don’t, a failure. That’s already a lot of pressure. But it’s what getting Kevin Durant has gotten you.

–It remains uncanny how even the shot distribution is among Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Durant and Thompson took 19 shots each and Curry 18 against Denver. For the season, they are ridiculously close in total shots: Durant (596); Thompson (607) and Curry (585).

–The Nuggets didn’t do a bad job of looking pretty good in their loss. They never let the game get out of hand and they had some nice individual performances, despite not being able to make enough 3s. The real test for a team like Denver, though, is whether they can fly back home and beat the Sacramento Kings tomorrow night. In other words, can the Nuggets play tomorrow like they played tonight?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About Steinmetz

Matt Steinmetz is a veteran San Francisco Bay Area sports journalist. He covered the Golden State Warriors for the Bay Area News Group for more than a decade before becoming a television analyst with Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. Steinmetz can be heard on "Steiny & Guru" on 95.7-FM The Game in San Francisco, from 12-3.
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