Curry Perfect Night Sparks Warriors First Win

The Curry perfect night in Denver finally gave the Golden State Warriors something to celebrate. Stephen Curry hit all eight of his shots from the field and all five free throws, and the Warriors beat the Nuggets by twenty points, 134-114, on Monday for their first win of the season.

Golden State had started the year zero and three, and a loss in Denver would have meant its first zero-and-four start since the 2007-08 season, according to ESPN and the Associated Press. Instead, the Dubs shot better than fifty-four percent overall and hit twenty-two of forty-four from three-point range.

A quiet first half, then an explosion

For two quarters, the Curry perfect night looked unlikely. The Nuggets sent defenders at him the second he touched the ball, and Curry took exactly one shot in the first half, a three from the right wing, finishing the half with three points. Draymond Green said afterward that Denver was "draped all over him," as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle via Yahoo Sports.

Then the third quarter flipped everything. Golden State designed screens for Curry in the backcourt to give him breathing room, and he went on a seventeen-point run in just seven and a half minutes of game clock. He scored twenty-one of his twenty-four points after the break.

Yaxel Lendeborg steals the headline

Curry was not even the leading scorer. Rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg, out of Michigan, put up a career-high thirty-one points with twelve rebounds and six assists, hitting twelve of thirteen free throws. He came in averaging just under nineteen points a game.

Coach Steve Kerr was blunt about what that means. "He's going to be a guy who closes games," Kerr said of Lendeborg, per ESPN's Anthony Slater. Curry called the rookie "kind of the full package," according to Basketball Network.

Brandin Podziemski added eighteen points and finished a game-high plus thirty-three, while veteran Al Horford, who is forty, hit three threes off the bench. The Warriors also outrebounded Denver fifty to thirty-six.

Why this win matters for Golden State

Curry, Green and Podziemski had all sat out Saturday's loss in Phoenix, so their return changed the whole feel of the team. Kerr has leaned on a simple plan for now: play through Curry and Lendeborg until Jimmy Butler recovers from his knee injury.

Curry, who is thirty-eight, has been managed carefully after knee trouble last January, with fewer training camp reps and limited preseason minutes. He played about twenty-six and a half minutes in Denver and said the limit came from game situations, not an inability to go longer.

Green offered a reality check, too. "It's unfair to Steph for us to expect him to bail him out every night," he said, per the Chronicle. That is the real storyline: the supporting cast has to carry weight so the face of the franchise does not burn out.

Denver's rough night

The Nuggets had their own problems. Nikola Jokic finished with nineteen points, seven rebounds and eleven assists before sitting with the game out of reach. Denver allowed seventy-four points after halftime.

Frustration boiled over for Aaron Gordon, who was hit with two technical fouls in the fourth quarter and ejected. Jokic had also scolded fans for booing during the home opener, and this time some supporters simply left early in a game that started late.

What comes next

Golden State heads to Minnesota on Wednesday night, where the Timberwolves sit with a strong early record. Denver travels to New Orleans the same night. One win does not fix a team missing Butler, but a clean, balanced performance gives Kerr something to build on.

For fans watching the early sports season, the lesson is simple: one flawless Curry night can change the mood of a franchise, but the long grind depends on young players like Lendeborg stepping up. Keep an eye on whether Wednesday brings more of the same.

Curry's last perfect shooting game of this kind came years ago, and Heavy reported it was only the second time he has ever finished a game without a miss. Fans will be hoping the Curry perfect night is the start of a turnaround rather than a one-off.