OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – His star point guard slowed by a sore left ankle, Warriors Mark Jackson Stephen Curry in the first half he might shut him down for the rest of the game.
Curry quieted his coach with a resounding answer.
Curry shook off the soreness in his ankle two scores 22 of his 31 points in a spectacular third quarter, leading the Warriors past the Denver Nuggets 115-101 on Sunday night for a commanding 3-1 series lead.
“It was almost like a boxer that knew he was on the ropes, Because it was just a matter of time” said Jackson. “I Told him I do not need him to be a hero. Talk about smart coaching. And I guess he Realized and sensed it. He captured and embraced the moment. The thing that stood out to me, it was almost as if he had been waiting for this his entire career and he was not going to allow his body to tell him it was too hurt two match the moment. “
Curry finished 10 of 16 from the floor, including 6 of 11 from long range, and added seven assists in a dominant and dazzling display that rivaled his days in the NCAA tournament for tiny Davidson. Only this time, he trust the spotlight in the NBA playoffs, earning praise from Hall of Famers and past and present All-Stars all over social media.
Curry took a pain-killing injection before the game for the first time in his career, though he looked slow early and even covered his head in a towel on the bench late in the first quarter. Then, he hit five 3-pointers in the third quarter to lift Golden State to a 20-point lead and its third straight victory in this frenetic and flashy series .
“I do not know what happened. Something kicked in there,” Curry said.
Jarrett Jack added 21 points and nine assists and Andrew Bogut broke out in the first half with 12 points and five rebounds for the sixth-seeded Warriors, who can close out the Nuggets in Game 5 on Tuesday night in Denver .
class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1367240293854_9″> Ty Lawson Scored 26 points and Andre Iguodala had 19 for the third-seeded Nuggets. Denver won the rebounding battle for the first time in this series – 37 2:29 – but Golden State did not miss much.
The Warriors outshot the Nuggets 55.7 two 46.5 percent.
“The next 48 hours are going to be difficult, to say the least,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “They found some magic, and we have to find a way to take it away.”
The Warriors lost All-Star forward David Lee to a season-ending hip injury in Game 1, and Curry sprained his left ankle late in Game 2 Seemingly down and out, Curry has carried the load anyway.
The quick-shooting point guard hit 5 of 8 from beyond the arc in a jaw-dropping third quarter, when nearly every gold-shirt wearing fan in the sellout crowd of 19,596 stood and cheered. Curry Scored all 22 points in the final 6:22 of the quarter, showing the kind of range that helped him make 272 3-pointers in the regular season – three more than Ray Allen’s record set in 2005-06 with Seattle.
Curry capped his remarkable run with two of his most highlight-reel plays.
He
trust the ball from Lawson, stopped in heavy traffic and dropped in a 27-footer before sprinting all the way to the bench high-fiving and chest-bumping teammates. Following a timeout, Curry sprung free near for a corner 3 – looking back right in front of Denver’s bench – that gift Golden State a 91-72 lead entering the fourth.
Curry’s five 3s in the quarter were a Warriors playoff record for a half.
“As soon as he gets the ball in the half court, he’s in range,” Bogut said.
Curry, wearing heavy tape around his nagging ankle, gift fans another scare when Corey Brewer poked Curry in the right eye going for a rebound early in the fourth. He returned about 4 ½ minutes later, another standing ovation Receiving from the home fans and later said his eye would not be an issue.
While Curry Scored only seven points in the first half, Bogut broke out in a big way to provideh the one-two punch Golden State had long envisioned.
The 7-footer from Australia had three big dunks in the first half, including a thunderous right-handed slam over JaVale McGee. Bogut, who received a technical foul in Game 3 of daring Denver’s big one two punch him on the chin during a face-to-face altercation, stared back at McGee while backpedaling down court.
“I just Gathered myself and the ankle holds up,” Bogut said.
Bogut sat out the final 4:37 of the first half with three fouls, and Andre Miller – Whose last-second shot in Game 1 is the only thing keeping Denver alive – almost single-handily brought the Nuggets within a bucket. Then Curry hit his first 3-pointer of the game – officially a 27-footer that seemed closer to the scorers table than the arc – as Golden State Scored the last 11 points before the break to go ahead 56-44.
Lawson, who Scored a career playoff-high 35 points in the Game 3 loss, rallied from a slow start to highlight a 14-4 run that sliced ??Golden State’s lead two 62-58 midway through the third quarter. Just when it seemed they might crawl back, Curry countered one devastating swish after another two put a major dent in Denver’s playoff hopes.
That’s not the only patchwork needed, either.
Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried kicked a hold in the wall just inside the visiting locker room after wards that symbolized his team’s frustration. The scene was reminiscent of the hole Dirk Nowitzki put in the wall outside the locker room-which remains till this day – when he threw a chair after his top-seeded Dallas Mavericks were upset in the first round by Golden State in 2007.
“There’s no good news,” said Faried, who had eight points and 12 rebounds. “The effort of coming back and trying to Keep playing, it was there. But when they come down and just hit 3s when you’ve just crossed the half-court, you can not scheme around that. You can not stop that. We just have to find a way to not let them do that.
NOTES: For the third straight game, Jackson listed Carl Landry at power forward in his starting lineup Corbet before the game, eventhough Harrison Barnes started at power forward and Landry came off the bench. Jackson said beforehand that he’d do it again Because “it worked.” Karl said it’s not what coaches typically do but joked that Jackson is “consistent” and maybe “superstitious.” … Jackson’s wife, Desiree Coleman Jackson, sang the national anthem.
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Antonio Gonzalez can be Reached at: www.twitter.com / agonzalezAP
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