Stephen Curry Praised as '1 of 1' as Warriors Show They're Back with Win vs. Nuggets

The Golden State Warriors are in the Western Conference Semifinals after their 102-98 win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night. 

After dropping Game 4 of their playoff series on Sunday, the Warriors closed it out in Game 5 thanks to a dazzling performance from Stephen Curry. 

The two-time NBA MVP was back in the starting lineup for the first time since March 16. He dropped 30 points, five assists and five rebounds in 38 minutes. 

Curry had been coming off the bench in the first four games of the series as he worked his way back from a foot injury that kept him out for final 12 games of the regular season. 

You would never know anything was wrong based on how Curry played against the Nuggets. He averaged 30 minutes per game in the series and was typically efficient shooting the ball. 

Curry's performance in Game 5 was critical because the rest of Golden State's starting five struggled on the offensive end. Klay Thompson had his worst shooting game of the series, going 5-of-13 from the field (1-of-6 from three-point range). 

Jordan Poole was one of only two Warriors with a negative plus-minus (minus-six) and finished with eight points. His performance really fell off in the past two games with just 19 combined points after an electric start to the series. 

Draymond Green had a brutal defensive assignment as the primary man on Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets superstar was outstanding overall and did his best to carry an overmatched roster to make these last three games much closer than they should have been on paper. 

Despite being matched up primarily on Jokic, Green was a game-high plus-12 and finished with three blocks and a steal. 

Gary Payton II provided a much-needed spark off the bench for Golden State. He had 15 points, his most in a game since 22 on Dec. 23 against the Memphis Grizzlies, and had two steals in 26 minutes. 

As good as Payton and Green were in their roles, Wednesday's win was another indication of how much everything the Warriors do runs through Curry. He is the sparkplug on offense and impossible to defend when he's on, which happened often in this series.  

By closing out their first-round series quickly, the Warriors will get time to rest as they wait to find out who they will play in the semifinals. The Grizzlies have a 3-2 series lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves heading into Game 6 on Friday in Minneapolis. 

Golden State lost three of four games to the Grizzlies and split four head-to-head meetings with the T-Wolves during the regular season. 

The Warriors didn't have their main trio of Curry, Thompson and Green together in any of those games. 

With that group playing together now, along with role players like Poole and Payton capable of putting up big numbers on any given night, the Warriors are going to be very difficult to beat in the postseason.