BOX SCORE
Nuggets 107, Warriors 101 (Double Overtime)Player of the game: Danilo Gallinari didnt shoot the ball very well on Saturday night, but he hit the biggest shot of the gamea 3-pointer with 35.9 seconds left in the second overtime to give the Nuggets a 103-101 lead.Key stretch: Klay Thompson hit a 3-pointer with 2:43 remaining in the second overtime to give the Warriors a 101-96 lead, but they failed to score after that with Denver scoring the games final 11 points.This is the worst Ive felt after a game, Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. Quite honestly last year we werent good enough talent-wise to win a lot of ballgames. Thats flat-out what the truth is. Were good enough right now and we got outworked.Costly misses and mistakes: The Warriors had two chances to put the game away. But both times, they failed to convert from the line.With the Warriors up 94-92 and 13 seconds left in the first overtime, Klay Thompson had a pair of free throws to seal the game. But he missed both foul shots, and Gallinari then converted a drive and dunk with 2.1 seconds left to tie the game and send it into the second overtime.Making matters worse, the Warriors had a foul to give on the Gallinari drive but didnt utilize it.Thompson was guarding Gallinari on the play and had an opportunity to foul.We made critical mistakes down the stretch that are simple basketball plays to make, Jackson said. We come out of a huddle with a foul to give and they get a drive, dunk and we talked about it. The bottom line is you cant make these mistakes. The good teams, elite teams, playoff teams dont make these mistakes. Weve got to be disappointed. Its just a bad feeling.
Thompson had a crazy game. He played a career-high 54 minutes and shot 9-for-26 from the field. He also went just 5-for-15 from 3-point line.Then, in the second overtime, the Warriors were leading 101-97 with 1:22 remaining and Carl Landry at the line for two shots. Landry missed both free throws and the Nuggets came back with consecutive 3-point shots.When you get down to it, we have the lead a couple of times in late-game situations and our inexperience showed, David Lee said. We missed some free throws, we had a foul to give when Gallinari gets the dunk to tie the game. The game should have been over at that point. From then on we had a couple of calls not go our way. Overall we didnt execute as well as they did in the last minute-and-half of the fourth quarter, first overtime and second overtime.Late holds: The Warriors held the Nuggets scoreless for the final 2:15 of regulation, and got buckets by Carl Landry and Jarrett Jack during that stretch to send the game into overtime.The Warriors had a shot to win it on the games last possession, but Jack missed a contested runner with time running out.Biedrins contributes: Warriors center Andris Biedrins wasnt exactly a world-beater against the Nuggets, but he was significantly better than he has been in recent games.Biedrins played a season-high 19 minutes, had eight rebounds and did a nice job defensively against Kosta Koufos and JaVale McGee. Certainly the highlight of the night for Biedrins, though, and Warriors fans, was when he knocked down consecutive free throws in the first half.Biedrins entered Fridays game having missed each of his four attempts this season. Last year, Biedrins went 1-for-9 from the foul line. The year before that Biedrins shot 32.3 percent from the line in 2010-11 and the year before that (2009-10) he shot 16 percent from the line.First-half ugliness: The shooting in the first half was deplorable, and both teams were in on it. The Warriors shot 34 percent and the Nuggets 32.7 percent, and the result was a predictably low 40-39 halftime score in favor of Denver.David Lee and Klay Thompson both went 5-for-13 from the field through 24 minutes. Lee labored to get anything to go down on the interior against the active and energetic Kenneth Faried and the long and athletic JaVale McGee. Lee had four of his shots blocked in the first half, and had to go out on the perimeter a little ways to get a few to go down.Thompson seems to be falling in love with the 3-point shot. He took seven of them in the first half, making only two. Exactly how much is he loving it? Well, 44 percent of his overall attempts have come from beyond the arc, which most coaches will tell you is too high of a percentage in any league.Except maybe Warriors coach Mark Jackson.Before the game, Jackson was asked about his teams perimeter shooting and whether the looks his players are getting are good ones.Im not going to tell my guys to turn down great looks, Jackson said. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompsonthey shoot the basketball. I dont want them thinking about it.Tyler out: Warriors second-year forwardcenter Jeremy Tyler was sent home before Saturdays game because of sickness. Tyler saw his first action of the season on Friday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers.Tyler had six pointson 3-for-4 from the fieldin six minutes in the game eventually won 101-77 by the Lakers.Supporting Greg Willard: NBA coaches, along with NBA officials, announced that for the remainder of November they will be wearing special purple awareness wristbands provided by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to raise awareness of the disease.NBA official Greg Willard was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and has the lowest five-year survival rate of all major cancers at six percent.
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