The Warriors are still in good shape in their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, but their playoff opponents have a little bit of confidence after fending off a sweep with a 126-121 win in Game 4 on Sunday at Ball Arena.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone even joked after the game that his team is probably the most comfortable in the NBA being down 3-1. While in the bubble in 2020, the Nuggets overcame 3-1 deficits in both the first and second rounds against the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers, respectively.
“We’re not just going out to Golden State to close the series out,” Malone said to reporters. “We’re trying to bring it back. Out of all the teams in the playoffs, we're probably most comfortable being down 3-1. Can I say we have them right where we want them? No. But we’re alive. We live to fight another day.”
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While the Warriors won the first two games of the series at Chase Center in blowout fashion, they had to fight and claw to win Game 3 and couldn’t repeat that performance in Game 4 in a closeout game.
Those games are the hardest, according to Malone.
“All the pressure is on them to close this out,” Malone said. “That’s the toughest game in the series is the closeout game. If we play like we did in Games 3 and 4, we’re going to give ourselves a chance again.”
Veteran Nuggets guard Austin Rivers added that there wasn’t much pressure coming into the series because few predicted them to upset the Warriors. But staring down a potential sweep, Rivers said the team did not want that to happen.
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“You get one, and it’s just a different level of confidence,” Rivers said. “It’s different. You’re down 0-3, everybody’s looking around at each other like, ‘Man, we gotta figure this out.’ You get one, and it’s like, ‘OK, so you can, you can do this.’”
Rivers added that confidence comes with winning, and the Nuggets have a taste of it now. That’s what he believes has propelled the Warriors to their success over the years.
“That’s why they’re so good,” Rivers said. “They’ve won at the highest level. They built a dynasty over there. So that’s what you’re going against. So you have to come out with that level of confidence.”
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Rivers echoed his coach in that the Warriors have to finish the job and close them out.
“We get to play with house money,” Rivers said. “I’m not counting on them to play tight. We’re talking about the Warriors here. They’ve played in much bigger games, if I'm just going to be honest. They’ve seen it all. I expect them to respond and be very, very, very good in Golden State.”
No team has ever come back from a 3-0 hole in the playoffs, and the Nuggets know that trying to stave off elimination on the road will be much different than at home.
Still, Malone is proud of the way his team fought to preserve at least one more game.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” Malone said. “The thing that was keeping me up at night…I didn’t want to get swept. I did not want to get swept. There’s something about getting swept that just eats at you at your core. I’m thrilled that we’re still alive. Not satisfied. But we can regroup and head out to San Francisco and try to find a way.”