DENVER, CO—The Denver Nuggets stunned the NBA best Golden State Warriors, defeating them 132-110 on Monday, February 13, after making a league record 24 3-pointers.
“Once we saw a few go in, we just wanted to keep going, see how many we could hit,” said Will Barton, who scored 24 points, including four 3-pointers, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Nuggets.
Denver tied the single game 3-point record set by the Houston Rockets in December against the New Orleans Pelicans.
“We just wanted to get after them, challenge them on offense and defense. It just so happened that we hit a lot of 3s. So, we just kept rolling with it,” Barton said. “But we never come into a game, especially with a team like that and just want to outshoot them from beyond the arc because that’s what they do.”
Juancho Hernangomez scored a game-high 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Nuggets. Jameer Nelson had 23 points, three rebounds and seven assists. Gary Harris added 16 points and Jamal Murray had 14 points and four assists off the bench.
Kevin Durant had 25 points, four rebounds and five assists for the Warriors, who snapped a three-game winning streak with the loss. Steph Curry scored 11 points to go with two rebounds and five assists. Patrick McCaw contributed 19 points while starting for Klay Thompson, who sat out with a sore right heel. Ian Clark added 18 points and Andre Iguodala scored 15 off the bench.
Durant expected the Nuggets to cool off from beyond 3-point range, but they never did.
“I thought they would. They were playing confident and free,” Durant said. “They had nothing to lose, especially missing some of their guys.”
The Nuggets have won two of their past three games and 5 of their last 10, moving to 25-30 overall and eighth place in the Western Conference. Denver will host the Minnesota Timberwolves in their next game on Wednesday, February 15.
Golden State falls to 49-6 on the season, tying the amount of losses they had last season when they set an NBA record with 73 victories. The Warriors will return to Oracle Arena to host the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, February 15.
