The Golden State Warriors have suffered their fifth-straight defeat, with three of those now coming after having double-digit leads in the second-half.
The Warriors led by 11 with just over six minutes remaining in Tuesday's final NBA Cup game against the Denver Nuggets, largely stemming from a 13-point outburst in the space of eight minutes from fourth-year wing Moses Moody.
Golden State still retained a six-point lead with just over two minutes to play, but again struggled offensively down the stretch. They went scoreless in the final two and a half minutes as the Nuggets finished on a 10-0 run to win 119-115 at Ball Arena.
The Warriors suffered another demoralizing defeat on Tuesday night
It was almost a mirror image of the first-half, with the Warriors once leading 54-42 before the Nuggets finished on a 12-3 run to tie the game at the main break. Denver continued the momentum in opening on a 7-0 run to start the third, eventually taking a 90-85 lead into the final period.
Golden State had to take advantage of the minutes Nikola Jokic was off the floor, and did just that in quickly going on a 10-2 run to open the quarter. Following a tough stretch shooting the ball that saw him play less than three minutes in Saturday's loss to the Phoenix Suns, Moody seemingly burst to life and gave the Warriors some control of the game halfway through the period.
The nemesis of Golden State and so many others, Jokic wouldn't be denied as the 3x MVP finished with 38 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and five steals in 40 minutes of play. Denver won those minutes by 23, and were astonishly outscored by 19 in the eight non-Jokic minutes.
Head coach Steve Kerr was furious after the final whistle, believing that the Nuggets should have been charged a technical foul as Christian Braun appeared to call a timeout that Denver didn't have. A made free throw would have given the Warriors a chance to tie the game with 1.9 seconds to play, but alas it was a jump ball and the game ended rather tamely.
Kerr was mad asf after the Warriors lost… pic.twitter.com/ER4IWAiVhp
— Famouslos32 (@famouslos32) December 4, 2024
Golden State only have themselves to blame though for yet another scoring drought over the closing minutes. Moody, Stephen Curry and Gary Payton II all missed three-point attempts, Jonathan Kuminga was blocked twice at the rim, and Andrew Wiggins turned the ball over all in the final 120 seconds of play.
It ultimately undid what was a lot of good from the Warriors on the night. Kuminga was excellent in the first-half as he replaced the injured Draymond Green in the starting lineup, finishing with 19 points and four rebounds on 9-of-18 shooting.
Brandin Podziemski was also efficient in his 13 points on 6-of-11 from the floor, yet made a couple of crucial errors as Denver mounted their comeback in the fourth. Curry had 24 points but took 23 shots to do so and also committed five turnovers, with the combination of he and Buddy Hield going just 6-of-21 from 3-point range.
The Warriors are still through to the NBA Cup quarterfinals, but the loss means they'll have to travel to Houston to play the Rockets. They'll now actually host the Rockets in their next meeting on Thursday at Chase Center.