Jordan Poole, a favorite for this year’s Most Improved Player of the Year award, delivered his explosive second half of the season in the first NBA playoff game of his career. He scored 30 points with 30 points with 9 to 13 from the field. He put deep three-pointers, finished the shots on the edge and reached the line of free throws. Poole once again looked like a budding young star on the national stage. Both teams went back and forth at the beginning of the regulation, with Carrie entering in the middle of the first ten minutes. Splash Brother teammate Klay Thompson did most of the damage for the Warriors early, scoring nine points in the first ten minutes. However, the Dumbs shot themselves with multiple overturns and retreated 27-26 at the end of the quarter. From there, the Warriors tightened aggressively. They finished the game with just 12 twists in the middle of a swirling dervishes pass. Golden State coach Steve Kerr waited until the final minutes of the second half to release the trio of Carrie, Poole and Thompson. They closed the half in a series of 18-4 and gave the Warriors a 58-47 lead at halftime. The Warriors maintained their double-digit lead in the third quarter and when Curry returned to the floor in the final five minutes, the Dubs made another turn. Carrie dropped his second three in the game and Golden State had a 20-point lead in a matter of minutes. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic started strong but wears out as the game progressed. The Warriors relied on Kevon Looney and Draymond Green against the dominant MVP, rarely doubling the Serbian star. Jokić got his buckets, but the rest of the Nuggets’ attack was difficult to start. On the other side of the floor, the Dumps are constantly engaging Djokic in pick-and-roll, something that seemed to tire him. Jokić finished 12-for-25 from the field with 25 points, 10 rebounds and only 5 assists. With Jokić resting in the second half, the Nuggets never made a legal turn in the fourth quarter and the Warriors won. Kerr brought his key players to the bench with 3:34 remaining in the regulation. Green appeared and looked like the top of the Warriors’ “Playoff Draymond” they hoped to see. He was fantastic defensively, scoring 12 points in a 5-to-7 shot and recording 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 blocks, while he did not make a single turn. Unsurprisingly he had the best plus / minus of anyone in the starting lineup (+21). Curry finished with 16 points in his 21 minutes of action. Thompson scored 19 points in 7-for-15 shots (5-for-10 out of three). Andrew Wiggins added 16 points and 9 rebounds. Off the bench, Otto Porter Jr., Nemanja Bjelica, Gary Payton II and Andre Iguodala added steady contributions, though none of them scored separate boxscore lines. Both teams have one day off before the Warriors host Match 2 on Monday 18 April at 19:00 Standard Pacific Time. The Nuggets will try to steal their home advantage before returning to Colorado, while the Dumpes have a chance to consolidate an impressive 2-0 lead. Take part in the live show Warriors postgame on Twitch with presenter Marc Delucchi:
