Golden State is trying to squeeze one more title run out of its championship window and will have to devise a way to get through the Denver Nuggets in order to get there.
The Warriors and Nuggets are the last two NBA champions and will face off at Denver in a Western Conference showdown game on Christmas Day. Golden State is a regular to the Christmas audience, but the Nuggets are fairly new to the scene.
Denver played on Dec. 25 last year and three of the last five seasons, including an overtime win over the Phoenix Suns in 2022. As the reigning title holder, with a two-time league MVP in Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets could be a staple on this day for a few years.
Monday is their true concern, when they face the surging Warriors, who are on a five-game winning streak despite Draymond Green serving a lengthy suspension. Golden State has pulled itself out of a nosedive behind the play of Klay Thompson, who shook off a rough stretch to find his stride during the winning streak.
Thompson has averaged 24.8 points a game during the winning streak and has made 46.3 percent of his 3-point attempts in that stretch.
“I feel like every time I shoot the ball it’s a good shot,” Thompson said. “They seem to be going in at a higher frequency over the last five or six games, but I’m not going to let anyone tell me after all these years — I feel like I can make every shot. Any shot, not every shot.”
The production has been needed with Green suspended, Gary Payton II out and Andrew Wiggins missing the last two games due to illness.
Denver is coming off a sweep of three road games against Eastern Conference teams, which came over four nights. The Nuggets won the games in different ways, outscoring the Toronto Raptors, grinding it out against the Brooklyn Nets and putting on a defensive display versus the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.
Denver held the Hornets without a field goal for the first 11 minutes of the third quarter and turned an eight-point halftime deficit into a 15-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
“That’s one of the more impressive runs that I can remember in my nine years in Denver,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after the team scored nine points in the third quarter. “We chart kills, and you get a kill if you get three stops in a row. To get 17 straight stops is incredible.”
Stopping the Warriors for 17 straight possessions is unrealistic but Denver does have Jokic, who can prevent an opponent from going on long scoring runs with his offensive skill set. Jokic was an assist shy of a triple-double on Saturday, and he is the last NBA player with a triple-double on Christmas when he accomplished the feat in 2022.
Jokic is getting plenty of help lately. Jamal Murray is finally healthy, averaging 21.4 points since returning from a right hamstring strain at the end of November. Aaron Gordon has improved his free-throw shooting and the bench has played well enough to spell the starters for longer stretches.
–Field Level Media