Denver Nuggets hold Golden State Warriors to season-low 81 points

* Recap: Nuggets 96, Warriors 81

When the NBA’s defending champions lose a game, the story invariably gets framed around their failings rather than the other guys’ success. But by snapping the Warriors’ 11-game win streak on Saturday night, the Denver Nuggets lined up a number of positives, most notably a thorough defensive performance.

When a team has weapons as dangerous as Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, it’s tempting to write off their combined 12-for-38 shooting, including 1-for-15 on 3-pointers, as cold nights. But there was another team out there, with defenders committed to making all of those shots a little tougher than usual. Gina Mizell of the Denver Post included this in her report:

The Nuggets clamped down on the typically lethal Warriors, holding them to 3-of-27 from beyond the arc and to their lowest point total of the season in a 96-81 win Saturday to complete a back-to-back road sweep in two of the NBA’s toughest environments.

“Teams that don’t have big plans would have been happy with the win last night (in Portland),” Malone said. “They would have said, ‘You know what? We split. We lose at Golden State and let’s go home.’ That was never our mentality.

“We came in here to be greedy, to be selfish and to get another one.”

Denver’s win snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Western Conference-leading Warriors (226-7), who were playing without sharpshooting superstar Stephen Curry, starting big man Zaza Pachuila and reserve guard Shaun Livingston. It was the Nuggets’ (18-15) first win at Golden State since 2014, less than 24 hours after notching their first victory in Portland since 2013.

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“It was believing in the next man,” said Chandler, who also contributed 15 points and nine rebounds. “Teammates looking out for one another, helping on drives and just scrambling out on shots … It’s a tough team to defend. They never stop moving. They shoot really well. They can penetrate really well. They’re well-coached. You’ve just got to stay kind of grounded and work together.”

OK, so the personnel challenges of the losing teams – no Damian Lillard for Portland Friday, no Curry for the Warriors Saturday – can’t be ignored in an honest assessment of the Nuggets’ weekend success. Still, Denver – now an encouraging 18-15 and tied for fifth in the West – is playing without All-Star Paul Millsap and still found the resolve, and the defensive rotations and resourcefulness, to stymie the NBA’s most potent attack. On the road.

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