DENVER — Steve Kerr reinserted Andrew Wiggins for Andre Iguodala with 4:27 left on Thursday night in Denver, bringing together the team’s new closing lineup for its first actual test in closing time. The Steph Curry, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, Wiggins and Draymond Green five-man grouping were never together in the regular season and weren’t needed in the fourth quarter of the last two blowout wins.
But Game 3 was tight. It was tied at 107 when Wiggins entered. That group won the next four minutes by five points, guiding the Warriors to a 118-113 road win, planting them up 3-0 in this first-round series with a chance to sweep on Sunday.
The Denver threat is nearly extinguished, but far bigger tests await this new Warriors’ five-man closing group in the weeks ahead. The crunchtime reps they got on Thursday in a road playoff environment should prove valuable. Let’s take a look at the five biggest plays that helped them rip away the win.
It briefly appeared as if Kerr planned to close with Iguodala ahead of Wiggins. Iguodala made a few plays in the middle of the fourth quarter, and Wiggins had been quiet. Kerr put Poole in for Wiggins with 5:26 left and kept Iguodala on the floor.
But Iguodala and Green together give the Nuggets an extra non-shooter to sag off defensively. They put Nikola Jokic on Iguodala and produced a stop. Kerr quickly switched up and went back to Wiggins. This closing unit is dangerous for many reasons. Maybe the most underrated of them is Wiggins’ ability, as the fifth most important offensive player, to still hurt a defense if left open.
The Nuggets tried to put Jokic on Wiggins, so he wouldn’t be dragged into all Green’s advanced screen action. To counter, the Warriors sent Wiggins to set a high screen for Curry, which nearly produced a layup at the rim for Wiggins and eventually led to a wide-open corner 3 when Wiggins relocated and Jokic ignored him.
Wiggins was quietly one of the deadliest left corner shooters in the NBA this season. He made 42 of 87 from that spot. This is the dilemma this lineup creates. The Nuggets are so worried about all the other threats on the floor that they end up willingly giving up a wide-open left corner 3 to a guy who made 48 percent of his shots from there this season.
The result was a go-ahead 3 with 3:04 left. Both Curry and Kerr would refer to it postgame as the biggest shot of the night.
On the ensuing defensive possession, the Warriors were put in a bind. This five-man unit profiles as a quick, switchable, scattering group, but that kind of approach can invite mismatch hunting if the opponent is deliberate.
At the beginning of the clip, shown below, Monte’ Morris is briefly open for a wing 3. The Warriors don’t want to give that up. Green knows this. So he bolts out to help to force Morris to pass it off. The double closeout from Green and Curry works but also creates trouble on the backside. Jokic is suddenly being guarded by Wiggins.
That’s a tasty matchup for the Nuggets. They go right to it. But Wiggins holds up well enough to force Jokic into a spinning 7-foot fadeaway and bounces off the floor for a great contest. Jokic misses, and Thompson crashes in to pinball himself a big defensive rebound. It was his lone rebound.
“I fought for that rebound,” Thompson said. “Although I only had one tonight, it was an incredibly important one.”
Curry, accepting of a bench role again, was terrific for a second straight game. He scored 27 points on 17 shots in 31 big minutes. His layup in the final minutes gave the Warriors the final breathing room they needed.
But he did miss a huge 3 from straight away with 2:23 left that would’ve put the Warriors up four. It felt like the Nuggets had dodged a bullet. This is a screenshot of the moment Curry’s miss hits the rim.
Three Nuggets are in prime rebounding position. If either Will Barton or Jeff Green boxed out, they would’ve captured it. But neither did and, as you can see in that still picture, Wiggins is crashing in from the left corner and seems to be sniffing out the angle of the ensuing rebound.
“I’ve been saying the last couple games Wiggins is playing incredible basketball,” Green said. “I know most people gonna look and say, ‘Oh, he had nine points.’ That just really shows you the lack of knowledge around the game of basketball and how people can’t dissect the game and know what’s going on. Because Wiggins has been playing incredible basketball on both ends of the floor… He’s been doing the little stuff all three games this series. No one really talks about it, but we as his teammates see it and appreciate it.”
This is Wiggins sliding through and capturing the biggest offensive rebound of his career.
The second part of that clip is more spectacular. Wiggins’ scrambling hustle has the Nuggets out of defensive position when he kicks it out to Curry. Curry swings it to Poole, who is wide open in the right corner.
If Kerr had his way, he said he’d have liked Poole to line up and take that open corner 3. But it’s difficult for Kerr to question any of Poole’s shot selection the last three games. He has been insanely efficient.
Poole has scored 30, 29 and 27 points on 13, 16 and 13 shot attempts. That’s 86 points on 42 shots. He just became only the 16th player in history to score 25 or more points in his first three career playoff games and he hasn’t needed to chuck to put up those numbers.
His two most important Game 3 points came on that acrobatic layup, a second chance set up by Wiggins’ offensive rebound.
“We don’t get that bucket if he doesn’t get that rebound,” Poole said.
That had the Warriors up three nearing the final minute. The Nuggets still had time to remain patient, run smart offense and generate their preferred matchup to attack.
It appeared they had done so, using a Jokic high screen to get Thompson switched onto the big center. But Barton, now with Green switched on him, decided not to maneuver the ball to Jokic in the post against Thompson and instead chucked up a hero 3 with 10 seconds still left on the shot clock.
If you were trying to justify Barton’s choice, the argument is a simple one. If he makes it, the game is tied. If he misses it, the presumption is Jokic is in a prime position to get the offensive rebound. The Warriors’ best rebounder, Green, is 28 feet from the hoop, and Jokic is down there towering over and bullying through Thompson.
But Thompson stands his ground. Kerr called this box out one of the biggest plays of the night. Thompson doesn’t get a statistic. The loose ball bounces to Poole. But these are the absolutely vital little things that this small Warriors’ lineup must do to thrive against Jaren Jackson Jr. and Deandre Ayton and all the challenges that may await.
Green picked up his fifth foul with four minutes left in the game. He already had the difficult task of trying to contain an aggressive, desperate Jokic, who finished with 37 points and 18 rebounds. Now he had to do it with the knowledge that one more whistle during the four most important minutes of the game meant a disqualification (and probable Denver win).
“Not at all (on my mind),” Green said. “If I foul out with … I mean, that’s money time. That’s when you gotta dig deep. You can’t play defense the last four minutes of the game worried about fouling out. For me, it’s business as usual. I’m going against Joker. I’ve got to be willing to use all six of my fouls at some point in the game.”
The Warriors led by five with 40 seconds left. Kerr and Mike Brown instructed them to cut off the 3-point line in the huddle prior to Denver’s possession. That meant no double and no help was coming Green’s direction in a Jokic post-up scenario. They’d leave him on an island with five fouls against the MVP.
Some defenders might’ve played it soft, avoided a whistle, maybe even gave up a backdown and easy bucket because of the five-point cushion. But Green instead went for the kill and came up with this risky swipe and steal.
Draymond comes up with the CLUTCH steal late!
GSW 118 | DEN 113 21.7 remaining in Q4#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel pic.twitter.com/u9TmAyCV8I
Draymond seals the Game 3 win for the @warriors with some lock down DEFENSE🔒
Game 4: GSW vs. DEN Sun. 3:30pm/et on ABC pic.twitter.com/9y8CZU9kFa
Here is Green’s description of what he saw on that play and why he felt it was the right time to swipe at Jokic’s dribble.
Draymond Green details his clutch steal on Nikola Jokic in the closing minute pic.twitter.com/9ufRaVGiBW
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 22, 2022
(Photo of Andrew Wiggins: Bart Young / NBAE via Getty Images)