Warriors take control with Denver domination

ORACLE ARENA — The Warriors knew how important Game 4 was. Win and you lead the series three games to one. Lose and you hand the momentum back to Denver.

Golden State was relentless fighting off a desperate Denver team, leading by as many as 23 points on the way to dominating the Nuggets 115-101.

Golden State took advantage of every opportunity to win both home playoff games. Stephen Curry dominated the key third quarter scoring 22 of his 31 points in that period.

But Curry was poked in the right eye by Corey Brewer early in the fourth quarter. He would return briefly after resting on the bench for several minutes.

Denver surged with a 7-0 Ty Lawson run early in the third quarter to make it an eight-point Warriors lead. Lawson single-handedly kept his team in the game scoring 15 of his 26 points in the period.

Though Lawson was hot, Curry was hotter. His 22 points in the third built up a 19-point Warriors lead after three quarters.

Curry’s finger roll lay-up with 3:53 left in the third kept the crowd on its feet. He later added a three-point play on a running jump shot and the foul.

Moments later his pull-up 3-pointer from the top of the key brought the house down as the Warriors extended their lead to a game-high 17 points.

Curry would drain another triple — scoring five 3-pointers in the quarter — as the Warriors led 91-72 at the end of three quarters.

Golden State’s Achilles heel was turnovers in Game 2.

A fade-away jumper by Jarrett Jack gave the Warriors a four-point lead after one quarter. Entering the second, the Warriors extended that lead to 33-26 following a thunderous one handed jam by Andrew Bogut.

A pull-up three by Klay Thompson made it a seven point lead with 7:56 to play in the first half.

Bogut with an alley-oop dunk from Steph Curry made it a three point lead.

The Warriors twice led by as many as nine points but the Nuggets held their ground to get within one point. But Golden State went on an 11-0 run and took a 56-44 lead at the half.

The Warriors travel to Denver Tuesday for Game 5 and a chance to close out the first-round series. Tip-off is at 5 p.m. with local broadcast on TNT.