The Warriors Exploded With A 51-Point First Quarter Against The Nuggets

There’s something wonderful about when the Golden State Warriors are locked in. Can it get exhausting watching them once the playoffs roll around and we all know how this ends? Of course — there’s only so many times you can watch them, in the Finals, winning in four or five games, because they just do that.

But every now and then, they remind us that they are capable of magic that few, if any, NBA teams ever could match. The latest example of this came on Tuesday evening, when the Dubs traveled to Denver to take on the first-place Nuggets. The result of the game will come later on in the evening, and no matter what ends up happening (in all likelihood), it will not top what Golden State did in the game’s first quarter.

The Warriors came out firing on all cylinders, dropping an NBA record 51 first quarter points on one of the teams with aspirations of knocking them off once the postseason rolls around.

As you can guess, Golden State did most of its damage from behind the three-point line. The Warriors hit 10 threes in the game’s first quarter, catching fire and running up the score thanks to the three-headed monster of Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Steph Curry.

Durant, in particular, was locked in, as he did not miss a shot during the game’s first 12 minutes. It made up for the fact that their defense wasn’t especially locked in — Denver dropped 38 points in the first quarter, which ended with a flurry from the home side, along with some fireworks from the two-time Finals MVP.

Still, every now and then, Golden State likes to remind us that they’re capable of ramping things up to a level that no other team can even come close to matching. Sure, it might remind us that the end of the season can feel like a bit of a foregone conclusion, but in the moment, there’s nothing quite like the Warriors at their absolute best.