The Denver Nuggets just pulled off one of the wildest victories of the NBA season, capping a 25-4 run in the final six-plus minutes of the game with a 39-foot buzzer-beater from Nikola Jokic that stunned the host Golden State Warriors , 130-127, on Thursday.
Seriously, look at this shot of Jokic:
Stan Van Gundy brought the words out of everyone's mouth: “Are you kidding me?” A 7-footer taking off the dribble from outside the logo at the buzzer? Bench or not, Jokic is something different. I mean, the guy has only missed five shots in his last four games. And yes, you read that right. After going 13 for 16 for 34 points on Thursday, Jokic has now made 39 of his last 44 shots.
So this is great for the reigning champion Nuggets, who, if we're being honest, are waiting for the postseason. But on the other side of a win like this, there's always a team that's bleeding out, and for the Warriors, this is without question the worst loss in a season that has seen narrow but no cigar losses.
So far, Golden State has played in a league-high 27 clutch games. These are games that are within five points and have five minutes or less to play. They're 13-14 in these games. Treading water.
This is the kind of loss you may suffer.
“These games all come down to wire for us this year,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “These are definitely punches in the gut.”
As a result of the defeat, the Warriors are temporarily out of a play-in tournament place at 16:18, half a game behind the also weak Lakers for number 10. The Warriors are not even close to as good as the Nuggets, but they are on any given night They can still play with anyone in the league. You simply no longer have any room for error. You can't turn the ball over, especially at the wrong moment. They must not cool down when it is time to close.
They did both on Thursday. Stephen Curry missed all five of his shots in the final six minutes and threw away the pass that gave the Nuggets their final game-winning possession. Chris Paul, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins all missed crucial jumps. And on the other hand, the Warriors couldn't get any stops.
Call the Jokic winner a bad throw, but the game was headed in the wrong direction long before that, and the Warriors paid the price for keeping a championship team waiting a little too long.