On a career night for Aaron Gordon, Stephen Curry did what he does so often and stole the show.
Curry hit a tying 3-pointer late in regulation and scored 16 straight points for Golden State down the stretch to help the Warriors overcome Gordon’s 50-point night and beat the Denver Nuggets 137-131 on Thursday night.
“It’s kind of like a playoff type vibe where somebody has an out-of-body experience and you dig deep to steal one pretty much,” said Curry, who finished with 42 points.
Gordon had the seventh 50-point season opener in NBA history and tied a record for the first game of a season by making 10 3-pointers – three more than he had ever made in a game.
But it wasn’t enough, thanks to the way Curry played down the stretch.
“It sucks,” Gordon said. “They were asking if I wanted the game ball. No. I don’t want to take the L with me. It sucks. But it’s one game. It’s our first game.”
The Warriors were down seven late when Curry got to the line and made two free throws with 2:42 to play. He then was fouled on a 3-pointer the next trip down and made all three after encouraging the crowd to get loud before he went to the line.
Curry then tied it with 1:24 to play with only to watch Gordon answer with a 3 of his own to put Denver 120-117 with 25.7 seconds to play.
“Ridiculous,” Curry said of Gordon’s 10-for-11 shooting night from long range. “Whatever he did this summer worked.”
Curry took little time to respond, using a pick and roll to get a crack of space and using that to make the game-tying 3 with 21.4 seconds to play.
“On that one I was able to kind of do a little snake and I saw just a little bit of daylight,” Curry said. “Decisive. No second-guessing what you’re doing.”
The shot left the Nuggets marvelling.
“He hit a super tough shot to send it to OT,” Gordon said. “That’s Steph being Steph.”
The game went to overtime when Nikola Jokic missed a shot in the lane just before the buzzer. Curry led the way with seven points in the extra session and got help from 3-pointers from Al Horford and Jimmy Butler to get the win that improved Golden State to 2-0 on the season.
Curry even did his signature “night night” move after Butler’s 3 put the Warriors up six in the final minute of overtime.
The Nuggets now head home wondering how they squandered such an impressive night from Gordon, who broke Alex English’s franchise record of 47 points in a season opener and tied Terry Rozier’s NBA record with 10 3-pointers in an opener.
“I feel awful for Aaron,” coach David Adelman said. “Aaron had a night I’ll never forget. I know he won’t. So tough loss. We had so many chances to win the game, to control the game. Give them credit. They just keep coming.”
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