DENVER _ In what could be their last game before Steph Curry returns, it would have been easy for the Warriors to get caught looking ahead.
But in a 116-100 win over the Nuggets at Pepsi Center on Tuesday, an engaged Warriors team used impressive ball movement, a flurry of 3-pointers and a timely shimmy to set the stage for the two-time MVP's potential return.
After getting out to a quick 8-0 lead, Golden State took a one-point lead into the second quarter. However, forward Paul Millsap's turnaround jumper capped off a Nuggets run, and the Warriors trailed 58-49 at halftime.
Denver quickly extended its lead to 15 at the start of the second half, but Golden State answered with a 33-18 run to close the quarter, capped off by guard Jordan Poole's pair of 3-pointers, the last of which gave the Warriors (14-48) a one-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
As Poole approached the Warriors' bench, he celebrated with a Curry-like shimmy, conjuring an image the Warriors have missed for all but four games this season.
With forward Draymond Green (left knee soreness), center Kevon Looney (left hip soreness) and guard Ky Bowman (right ankle sprain) sidelined, the Warriors had only nine players after signing guard Chasson Randle to a 10-day contract Tuesday morning.
Golden State's 32nd different starting lineup of the season _ guards Damion Lee and Mychal Mulder, forwards Juan Toscano-Anderson and Andrew Wiggins and center Marquese Chriss _ was led by Wiggins' 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting, 10 assists and five rebounds in 34 minutes, but it was Poole and the rest of the bench that gave the Warriors the edge.
Helping outscore the Nuggets bench 51-26, forward Eric Paschall had 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting, five rebounds and five assists while Poole finished with 15 points on 4-for-7 shooting (4 for 6 from 3-point range) and six assists.
Defensively, the Warriors held the Nuggets (41-20) to 3 for 20 from the 3-point line while, on offense, they themselves made 18 3-pointers _ the most since Feb. 1 _ and recorded 31 assists.
The win is a signature one, taking down a team with the second-best record in the Western Conference and earning the team's second win in three games.
With Curry hopeful to return on Thursday against the Raptors at Chase Center, he will do so to a team much different than the one he left when he broke a bone in his left hand on Oct. 30.
Poole, no longer struggling in his rookie season, will continue to shoot and pass confidently, Paschall will remain a powerful scoring option and Wiggins will learn to play off his new teammate.
Curry's presence won't do much to change the fate of this lottery-bound season but, if Tuesday's win showed anything, it is that this team is committed to playing admirably through this process.
