Takeaways from Warriors' Win Over Nuggets: Podz Plays Best Game of Season

Without their four highest-paid players, the Golden State Warriors (30-27) rallied for a surprising 128-117 win over the Denver Nuggets (36-22) on Sunday at Chase Center.

The Warriors hit 15 first-half threes to lead 76-67 at halftime, but their shooting fell off in the third quarter, as they went 0-of-13 from three in the frame, which allowed the Nuggets to take a six-point lead into the fourth quarter.

But the Warriors bounced back, dominating the final frame with a 33-16 advantage.

Nikola Jokic had a game-high 35 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists.

The Warriors got huge contributions from Moses Moody (23 points), Al Horford (22), De'Anthony Melton (20) and Brandin Podziemski (18). Overall, they had seven players score in double figures.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday's game.

Podz Plays Best Game of the Season

Podz has had bigger scoring games this season, but he hasn't dominated down the stretch like he did Sunday.

He went 6-of-6 in the fourth quarter, and the variety of ways in which he scored shows what Podz can be when he's at his best.

He started with a driving, and-1 layup. He then hit a go-ahead wing three.

The next possession, with the shot clock running down, he made a high-arcing, Steph-like floater to put the Warriors up five.

Podz has always had a great offensive rebounding crash rate, and he showed that off with a putback to put the Warriors up 10.

He then hit another wing three to put the Warriors up 13, and he finished the Nuggets off with a baseline pull-up jumper.

Up until the fourth quarter, Podz was shooting just 1-of-10 from the field, but even then he was making big contributions with his passing and rebounding. In all, he had 18 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists, finishing a game-high plus-19.

Warriors' Offensive Flow Looks Great without Stars

The Warriors had a season-high 42(!) assists Sunday, and overall they made 51 percent of their shots in one of their best offensive performances of the season.

There are many takeaways from this.

First, Steve Kerr is still one of the best coaches in the NBA. The Warriors had a severe offensive talent deficiency against the Nuggets, but it didn't matter because Golden State executed Kerr's offense so well.

Second, you have to wonder if Draymond Green is preventing the Warriors from finding this flow more often.

Green was a late scratch with back soreness, and Kristaps Porzingis (illness) and Stephen Curry (knee) were already ruled out, so the Warriors had just nine healthy players Sunday. Of the nine players, eight are bigger three-point threats than Green, which put pressure on Denver's defense that it might not have felt had Green been out there.

The only player the Nuggets guarded the way they would've guarded Green was Gary Payton II.

Payton did a nice job taking advantage of the space given to him by making three triples en route to 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

In fairness to Green, he's played well in a number of big offensive performances for the Warriors. For example, he had 20 points and six assists in their 136-116 win over the Hornets in January.

But it's hard to ignore how simple and effective the offense looks when Al Horford and Gui Santos are manning the frontcourt spots. They take threes when they have a sliver of space, but otherwise they move the ball side to side to keep the offensive rhythm.

Jokic Is NBA's Best Player

With all due respect to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry and others, Nikola Jokic is the NBA's best player.

What he did Sunday is just the latest example in an ocean of them.

Nobody creates more high-efficiency shots than Jokic. I've watched more than a thousand Warriors games, and I can say confidently that no player makes this defense looks more helpless than him.

The Nuggets imploded down the stretch, and in hindsight I'm sure Jokic would say he should have been more aggressive hunting shots. He took just one shot in the last 5:45 of the game (a made three-pointer), as the Warriors doubled him and forced the ball out of his hands.

It worked, as Jamal Murray had two bad turnovers before Bruce Brown smoked a wide-open layup that helped the Warriors extend their lead to 13, which effectively ended the game.

Still, the loss doesn't take away from Jokic's greatness. He makes 35-20-12 lines look routine.