The road has not been kind to any teams this postseason. The Chicago Bulls finally snapped the home team’s winning streak with Monday night’s 90-82 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Yet the Golden State Warriors, playing without David Lee, somehow managed to saunter into the NBA‘s toughest arena and walk out with a 131-117 win to even their series.
Denver’s win in Game 1 pushed their home record to 39-3 on the year, and the Nuggets hadn’t lost inside the Pepsi Center since Jan. 18.
But behind 30 points and 13 assists from Stephen Curry (who twisted his left ankle in the third quarter, but returned for the fourth), the Warriors walked into the Nuggets home and beat them at their own game. Golden State shot a blistering 64.6 percent from the field (56.0 percent from deep) and raced out to 14 fast-break points.
As impressive as Curry looked, though, this victory doesn’t happen without the play of rookie Harrison Barnes.
Starting at power forward in place of the injured David Lee (out for the playoffs with a torn right hip flexor), the Black Falcon soared to a career-high 24 points and six rebounds in 34 minutes of work. His delicious reverse throwdown over Anthony Randolph would have silenced the Pepsi Center, had it not been for the raucous reaction from Golden State’s bench.
Jarrett Jack (26 points) and Klay Thompson (21) also did their part to keep Denver’s defense honest.
The Warriors didn’t exactly extend their dominance on the defensive end; the Nuggets connected on 50.0 percent of their field goals after all. But they certainly fared better than Denver in that regard.
This series now shifts to what will surely be a rocking Oracle Arena for Game 3 at 10:30 p.m. ET on Friday night.
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