If you couldn’t stay up late Wednesday night, you unfortunately missed a fascinating battle between the NBA’s last two Finals MVPs.
The Nuggets bested the Warriors 108–105 in a hotly contested matchup I can only hope is a potential playoff preview. And the game within the game, specifically how each team tried to slow down the other’s offensive titan, was ultimately won by Denver.
Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokić—who already have four regular-season MVPs between them—entered Wednesday’s showdown playing at or above the level that has won them the award before. Curry is averaging nearly as many points (30.0) as his unanimous MVP year in 2016 (30.1), while shooting better from the field, three and the free throw line. (That Curry is currently shooting 51.2% from the field and 47.3% from distance is ABSURD. We need to be screaming from the rooftops about this.)
STEPHEN! pic.twitter.com/6zbK0wLAHi
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) November 9, 2023
Meanwhile, Jokić continues to put in work despite looking like Garfield on a Monday. His 29.1 points and 12.9 rebounds through the early part of the season would be career highs, and his efficiency remains comical.
The beauty of both players has always been that not only are they deadly at creating offense for themselves, but they also command so much attention on or off the ball that teammates fall backward into wide-open looks. We saw that in the last five minutes of Wednesday’s tight fourth quarter.
With Jamal Murray out for Denver and Draymond Green out for Golden State, even more pressure was on Jokić and Curry to deliver. Both players went to their most reliable actions down the stretch: A clearout and post-up for Joker, and a pick-and-roll for Curry.
Both stars were making the opponent pay. Jokić mowed through Kevon Looney whenever he was single-covered, and when the Dubs sent a double, he would quickly find an open teammate. On the other side, Curry generated easy dunks on back-to-back possessions going after Jokić. You’ve seen this a million times by now—Curry calls a big (this time, it was Joker) into a screen, Denver had to put two players on Curry as he comes off the pick, Curry quickly hits a rolling big (in this case, Looney), the defense collapses on him and the roller dishes to a baseline cutter for a dunk.
Collin with the flashy dime pic.twitter.com/r9J3EQkOBF
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 9, 2023
Denver made the strategic switch that likely won it the game, however. Soon after the back-to-back dunks, the Nuggets stuck Jokić on Chris Paul in the corner and put Aaron Gordon on Looney. This allowed the Nugs to switch any screens involving Curry, and Golden State looked a little discombobulated in response. On one possession, Paul held the ball for too long in the corner with Jokić on him and couldn’t take advantage of the switch. On another possession, he missed a pull-up three. (Jokić was on Dario Šarić before Paul entered. When Šarić screened for Curry, he popped out for what was probably an ill-advised three. He missed the shot.)
Again, it would be very enjoyable to watch this all play out in a playoff series. How would the Dubs find ways to attack Jokić? Who would Golden State close with to avoid having a player Joker can hide on defensively? What’s the Warriors’ answer for Jokić in the post? Can Green do it himself?
There are still two more matchups between these teams—including one on Christmas—left this season, so we may get a few answers to some of those questions. It will be a treat watching Steph and Jokić try to outwit each other’s teams, especially once both squads are at full strength. For now, round one went to Joker.
