Photo credit: GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors)

By Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- The Golden State Warriors played the first of four preseason games Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets at Oracle Arena. The Dubs, preparing to defend their NBA championship, showed a lot of rust and the three-point shots did not fall. The Nuggets with their new addition of Paul Milsap leading the way beat the Dubs 108-102.

Coach Steve Kerr played his regular for about 20 minutes in the game. The Dubs wanted to give some of the players on the second and third units playing time.

The Warriors missed their first nine three-point shots and were 4-for-33 for the game. Draymond Green and Kevin Durant were each 0-for 5 and Steph was 1-for-7 in that department. Nick Young made the first three-pointer for Golden State late in the first half. The Dubs shot 40% from the field but had just seven assists which indicated that they didn’t have a lot of ball movement.

Denver shot 41% from the field in the first half. They made five three-pointers.

Warriors rookie Jordan Bell knocked down seven points in his first game as a Warrior.

Game Notes- Ben Wallace, winner of Defensive Player of the Year four times in his career, presented Draymond Green with the award.  Draymond, when he was a young man growing up in Saginaw, Michigan, idolized Wallace and he was totally surprised by Wallace’s appearance at Oracle Arena.

The Warriors fly to China on Sunday. They will play two games against the Minnesota Timberwolves there. The first game will be in Shenzen on October 5th and the second game will take place on October 8th in Shanghai.