Warriors finally break drought and reach shock new status in West playoff race

After 52 and 37-point performances earlier in the week, Stephen Curry has produced another memorable outing to lift the Golden State Warriors to a massive 118-104 victory over the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center on Friday night.

Having lost their last nine games against the Nuggets, the Warriors overcame an early onslaught and some more Nikola Jokic magic to claim victory and stunningly draw within half a game of the third-seed in the Western Conference standings.

Stephen Curry and Brandin Podziemski again came through for the Warriors on Friday

Curry had 36 points on 13-of-24 shooting and 7-of-15 from 3-point range, including a 12-point second-quarter which helped the Warriors overturn a 10-point deficit into a six-point half-time lead. The enormity of the game was on full display as an animated Curry got the crowd going on countless occassions, with Golden State back on their home floor for the first time after a six-game road-trip.

Brandin Podziemski played Robin to Curry's Batman on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, and that once again proved the case 24 hours later as the second-year guard continued his stunning form.

The 22-year-old backed up his 8-of-10 3-point shooting against the Lakers with another 4-of-8 from deep on Friday, finishing with 26 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists and two steals in over 35 minutes.

Jimmy Butler was quiet with just 11 points against the Lakers, but increased his output with 19 points and five assists against the Nuggets. It was perhaps Butler's defense that was more important though, with the 6x All-Star recording five steals to help force the Nuggets into a season-high 25 turnovers.

In fact, Denver had just 60 points over the final three-quarters after dropping 44 in the first. Jokic did his thing with 33 points on a super efficient 13-of-17 shooting, but the Nuggets struggled to find another outlet in the absence of star guard Jamal Murray. The Warriors only won the Jokic minutes by four, but crucially killed the Nuggets who were -14 in the nearly 11 minutes where their star was off the floor.

Golden State's defensive effort over the final 36 minutes will only strengthen Draymond Green's DPOY case, with the veteran forward making a couple of big plays in the final period where he forced Aaron Gordon into a shot-clock turnover and Russell Westbrook into fumbling the ball out of bounds.

The hosts shot 48.9% from the floor, 42.1% from 3-point range and 88.9% (16-of-18) from the free-throw line, but the defense was the key as they remain equal-first in the league on that end of the floor since February 7.

The Warriors are now a remarkable 21-2 with Curry and Butler available, and now have a day off before another vitally important game against the Houston Rockets at Chase Center on Sunday.