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Golden State Warriors: Top 10 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season

By Daniel Lubofsky

OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 16: Klay Thompson #11, Stephen Curry #30 and Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors are photographed during the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on October 16, 2018 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 16: Klay Thompson #11, Stephen Curry #30 and Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors are photographed during the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on October 16, 2018 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /

8. Statement victory over the Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets had proven to be one of the biggest surprises throughout the NBA during the regular season. Having just missed out on the playoffs the previous year, Denver returned to skyrocket up the standings towards the top of the Western Conference.

This improved level of play had them locked into a battle with the Warriors for the top spot in the conference for most of the year. The two sides would meet up in the Mile High on Jan. 15 in a battle of the best in the West, with seeding potentially on the line.

This game may have been the biggest in a long time for the Nuggets, but the Warriors had been calloused from years of June basketball. Still, they wanted to come out and shut down any notion that a team out West could be deemed a worthy competitor without first showing it in the postseason.

In typical Golden State fashion, it was as large of annihilation as the NBA had seen all season long. The Dubs dropped a league-record 51 points in the opening quarter, including a franchise-best 10 3-pointers. Denver would never lead and trailed by as many as 38 in what was ultimately a 31-point drubbing.

Nobody thought the Nuggets had a realistic shot of taking down Golden State in a potential playoff series. Rather, the game was viewed as a measuring stick to see just how much this developing juggernaut still had to grow before earning a seat at the big-boy table.

As the final numbers would suggest, the gap between the two sides was larger than the distance between their respective cities. The Warriors are built for the playoffs, but every so often they can remind the NBA world of their ceiling, as they did in a humbling experience for an up-and-coming Nuggets squad.

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