Curry shook off the soreness in his ankle to score 22 of his 31 points in a spectacular third quarter, leading the Warriors past the Denver Nuggets 115-101 on Sunday night for a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Allen Iverson, the diminutive (6-foot) point guard for the Denver Nuggets, is a quick player who can shoot--skills that might have won him a backup spot on an NBA team.
However, his later move to Denver Nuggets was not a success -- partly due to a back injury, and partly due to a league lockout that shortened the 2011-12 season to 31 matches.
This time Joe Johnson and the Nets were able to stave off a late run by the Denver Nuggets and enter the All-Star break with two straight wins, despite playing without star point guard Deron Williams.
The list of playoff busts includes some real gut-wrenchers: The 1978 Sonics blew a championship by dropping a Game 7 at home to Washington in the finals, while the top-seeded 1994 club lost a first-round series to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets.
His antics have since been mimicked by the Chicago Bulls' Benny the Bull and the Denver Nuggets' Rocky, an off-beat mountain lion.
The 62-year-old also owns the Denver Nuggets basketball team, the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche and Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids.
With playmaking guard and scoring leader Ty Lawson sidelined by foot problems, rookie Evan Fournier had a season-high 19 points to lead a strong showing by Denver's reserves, and the Nuggets extended their home winning streak to 18 games by beating the Brooklyn Nets 109-87 Friday night.
Brooklyn got into a track meet with the Nuggets, playing Denver's style, but leading 62-57 at the half.
Wilson Chandler scored 23 points in place of Gallinari, and Ty Lawson added 22 in the Nuggets' 119-108 win Monday night in which Denver outscored the Lakers 33-3 on the fast break and 78-50 in the paint.
Far worse on the league's draft-bust scale were Chris Washburn, who lasted just four seasons and averaged 3.1 points a game after going third overall to the Warriors in 1986, and Nikoloz Tskitishvili, a center from Italy who averaged 2.9 points and 1.8 rebounds in a five-year career after he was picked fifth by the Denver Nuggets in 2002.
The Magic, who long endured the disgruntled Howard's trade demands, got one future first-round pick each from the Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers and Denver Nuggets.
Stephen Curry had 30 points and 13 assists and the scrappy Warriors handed the Denver Nuggets their first loss at home in more than three months, a 131-117 stunner that evened their playoff series at a game each.
Ty Lawson and Corey Brewer each scored 19 points for Denver and Iguodala and Miller both had 18, but the Nuggets were playing catch-up from the middle of the second quarter and couldn't keep up with so many of the Warriors' shots falling, negating Denver's league-best transition game.
Although the Nuggets have the fourth-best record in the Western Conference, no Denver player was selected for next Sunday's All-Star Game, a fact Karl is quick to point out.
Amar'e Stoudemire led an early-season revival and Carmelo Anthony locked himself in the bedroom in Denver until the Nuggets dealt him to New York.
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The Nuggets' reserves scored 60 or more points for the fifth time this season and Denver is 4-1 in those games.
Jarrett Jack added 21 points and nine assists and Andrew Bogut broke out in the first half with 12 points and five rebounds for the sixth-seeded Warriors, who can close out the Nuggets in Game 5 on Tuesday night in Denver.
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