NBA Playoffs 2013: Nuggets vs. Warriors Series Recap

Coach Mark Jackson, center, helped lead the Golden State Warriors to just their second series victory in 22 years. The Warriors closed out their first-round series with the third-seeded Denver Nuggets Thursday, May 2, with a 92-88 win. (Flickr.com photo by Matthew Addie)

For the ninth time in 10 years, the Denver Nuggets have been bounced in the first round of the NBA playoffs. This time around it was the Golden State Warriors who turned the trick, closing out their series Thursday, May 2, with a 92-88 win at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.

The momentum in the series swung dramatically in Game 2, when the Warriors beat the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center in Denver to tie the series at a game apiece with a 131-117 win. It was just the fourth loss at home all season for the Nuggets, who were an NBA-best 38-3 at home during the regular season.

Golden State managed to win the series despite getting almost nothing from All-Star David Lee, who injured his him in Game 1 and was expected to be out for the duration of the playoffs. But Lee came off the bench for a 1:27 stint Thursday night and hopes to play in the conference semifinals.

Let’s take a look at the series in review:

Game Scores (Golden State wins series 4-2)

Game 1 at Denver: Nuggets 97, Warriors 95

Game 2 at Denver: Warriors 131, Nuggets 117

Game 3 at Oakland: Warriors 110, Nuggets 108

Game 4 at Oakland: Warriors 115, Nuggets 101

Game 5 at Denver: Nuggets 107, Warriors 100

Game 6 at Oakland: Warriors 92, Nuggets 88

Series MVP

Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry had a huge series for the Warriors. (NBA.com photo)

Curry came off a season in which he became the most prolific 3-point shooter in NBA history, sinking 272 treys, and just kept firing against the Nuggets.

Curry averaged 24.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 9.3 assists and 2.2 steals in 39.9 minutes a game and was far and away the best player on the court in the series.

Curry shot 46.8 percent for the series and was a prolific 23-for-53 (43.4 percent) from behind the arc. When the Warriors needed to step up without Lee, Curry was the guy. In the closeout game on Thursday, Curry went on a spree in the third quarter. He canned four 3-pointers and either scored or assisted on seven of the Warriors’ 10 makes in the period.

But it’s not fair to mention Curry’s heroics without referring to the contributions from rookie Harrison Barnes. Asked to move to the 4 after Lee’s injury, Barnes responded with 14.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in the series and it’s not often a rookie steps up in the playoffs by dramatically outperforming his regular-season numbers. In 81 starts this year, Barnes averaged 9.2 points and 4.1 boards a game.

The third quarter appeared to be Curry’s time to shine; he also had a huge third period in Game 4 of the series.

Biggest Surprise

Andrew Bogut

Andrew Bogut dominated the paint in Game 6. (NBA.com photo)

Andrew Bogut said Thursday after Game 6 (per ESPN.com) that this season was difficult and that his performance in Game 6 was like redemption.

“It’s very emotional for me because I’ve had a nightmare of a year,” Bogut said.

Traded to Golden State at last season’s trade deadline with Stephen Jackson for Monta Ellis, Kwame Brown and Ekpe Udoh, Bogut was already out for the season and didn’t play for the Warriors at all in 2011-12.

He barely played for them in 2012-13, at least in the regular season. While bothered all year by injuries to his back and foot, Bogut played in just 32 games, averaging 5.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 24.6 minutes per game.

Bogut absolutely owned the paint on Thursday, scoring 14 points and yanking down 21 rebounds, while also blocking four shots, and was the key factor in the closeout win. For the series, Bogut shot 63.2 percent from the floor and averaged 8.2 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks while playing 27.7 minutes a night. The scoring and rebounding totals from Thursday were season- and career playoff highs for the big Australian.

Biggest Disappointment

Another first-round flameout in Denver

Perhaps ESPN’s NBA Insider Chris Palmer put it best when he tweeted:

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl has more than 1,100 regular-season wins as an NBA coach, but his only trip to the NBA Finals came way back in 1996 with the Seattle SuperSonics. (Photo by Keith Allison/Flickr.com)

This was the ninth time in 10 years the Nuggets haven’t gotten out of the first round, but this season brings a new level of disappointment. Denver won 57 games—the most the Nuggets have had since joining the NBA in the merger with the old American Basketball Association in 1976. They had home-court advantage against a team that was making just its second appearance in the NBA playoffs since 1994.

But when Golden State shot 65 percent from the floor in its big Game 2 win at the Pepsi Center, the complexion of the series changed and the Nuggets were unable to reclaim home-court advantage as the Warriors won all three games in their building.

“Everything that we worked for 57 wins to get the third seed we gave back by having a flat game,” coach George Karl said of Game 2.

Of that 10-year string of playoff futility, Karl has been on the bench for the last nine. But Karl’s career is marked by playoff disappointment. Despite a sterling regular-season record of 1,131-756 (a .599 winning percentage), Karl’s teams are just 80-105 in the postseason, including a 21-38 mark in Denver. Ten of those wins came during Denver’s 2009 run to the Western Conference Finals; meaning that the Nuggets are just 11-32 in the other nine playoff runs (or sudden stops).

Karl has led one team to the NBA Finals in a 25-year coaching career; his 1996 Seattle SuperSonics lost in six games to the Chicago Bulls. But Karl also coached the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round to a No. 8 seed; that happened in the 1994 NBA playoffs when his Sonics were bounced by, coincidentally enough, the Nuggets.

In any event, Karl’s been great in Denver … until the playoffs start. It should be an interesting offseason in the Mile High City.

What’s Next

vs. San Antonio Spurs

The Warriors and Spurs tip off their series in San Antonio on Monday, May 6, meaning San Antonio will have had eight days between games. The Spurs wrapped up their first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, April 28.

In the regular season, the Warriors and Spurs split four meetings, with the home team winning each time.