© Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Warriors and their fans are back home. With a 118-97 win over the Denver Nuggets, they’re back to an even .500 at 30-30 and firmly in contention to climb up the standings.
Fans are back
Once the game actually got underway, you could be forgiven if you forgot there were fans back in the arena. For the majority of the game, it didn’t sound much different than the pre-recorded noise on the broadcast that we’ve become accustomed to.
That’s not a criticism of the fans, just an acknowledging that only about 1,700 were allowed into the 18,064 capacity Chase Center. It was, however, a more than symbolic return to normalcy. It’s a trope to say that sports don’t exist without fans, but it’s completely valid; without fans, professional sports would just be high-level rec leagues. Having fans back means something, even if it doesn’t translating from a sonic perspective.
It’s hard to hear, but it’s people, back watching sports.
Fans at a basketball game chanting MVP for Stephen Curry.
Nature is healing pic.twitter.com/hQ72796ThJ
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 24, 2021
Curry goes off in the second half against the MVP favorite
It was a weird first half for Curry, who was bothered by a sore left ankle that he turned a few games back. There was a brief moment of major concern, when Curry left the game early after landing on it without contact. Those concerns were quickly allayed, as it turned out Curry apparently was uncomfortable with the tape job on his ankle and later changed his shoes.
While he finished with just seven first-half points, he was back to his absurd self in the second.
Well, maybe not his usual self. After a long, roughly 40-foot three-point attempt didn’t result in a foul, Curry picked up a rare technical foul, verbally berating a referee in a way you almost never see from him. And of course, Juan Toscano-Anderson tried to get in the way and protect Curry from himself.
Angriest Stephen Curry has been on a basketball court since…?
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 24, 2021
Curry went off in the second half and scored 25 points, the exact number that ESPN’s Jalen Rose predicted he would have, finishing with 32 (11-of-18, 4-of-9 from three) with 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 turnovers. He was the best player on the court, and Jokic was outperformed by both Curry and his own teammate, Michael Porter Jr., who finished with an easy 26 points.
Draymond ties career-high assist total, reaffirms status against Jokic
This is another Warriors vs. Jokic thing, but there wasn’t just the angle of Curry vs. Jokic. Draymond Green set the standard for small ball lineups as the high key facilitator years ago. On some level, you have to imagine that he reveled in this opportunity to show himself against the new standard-bearer in Nikola Jokic, who, you know, can also score at a prolific level.
You can argue that Green outplayed Jokic, too; how ever you want to categorize that, he was stellar. It was a typically Draymond night, where he rebounded, assisted and defended at a prolific rate, and genuinely almost forgot to shoot the ball.
Green finished with 2 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high-tying 19 assists. He was that omnipresent force, keeping the Warriors flowing on both ends.