The Denver Nuggets defeated the Golden State Warriors 89-86 at Chase Center on Tuesday, achieving their second win in a row on the road.

Nikola Jokic again dragged the Nuggets' broken squad to victory by dropping 22 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and four steals. As the reigning MVP, he's able to get 38 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists per 48 minutes. When he's on the floor, the Nuggets win by 112-99 per 100 possessions.

Will Barton was the other player of the Nuggets that reached double-digit points as he drained four triples to get 21 points. The rest of the team were 19-48 in field goals (FGs) and 4-21 in triples.

However, the Nuggets build a ridiculous 24-point lead (60-36) in the first half, partly thanks to their reasonable defensive tactics. Whenever Stephen Curry called screen outside the 3-point line, at least two of the Nuggets would rush to trap him, forcing him to give the ball to his teammates.

This does not sound too special because that's how most teams have been doing defending Curry for years. However, it worked specially well on Tuesday because the Warriors missed Draymond Green who was placed on the NBA's COVID-19 list. When it's Kevon Looney or Juan Toscano-Anderson that Curry passed to, neither's able to move the ball like Green did.

As a result, the Warriors committed eight runovers in the first quarter, four from Curry. The team shot at 38 percent in FGs and 23.5 percent in 3-pointers. Curry missed all five shots from downtown and scored his first FG (and first point) until 2:08 in the second quarter.

The Warriors had size advantage in Tuesday's game in the wings with Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga. They tried to exploit by charging the rim as often as possible. Wiggins was doing okay to get 12 points and made two triples in the first half. Nonetheless, Kuminga had one of the worst nights in his career at the free throw line, where he missed seven shots. Toscano-Anderson did even worse by going 1-6 in free throws.

The turning points came for the Warriors in the second half in two things: Curry warming up behind the arc and the team growing more focused trapping Jokic. Curry first made the 3,000th 3-pointer of his career at the right corner. He also matched his own record of draining at least one triple in 157 consecutive games.

Then in the fourth quarter, Curry made another four 3-pointers, scoring 15 of the Warriors' 25 points in Q4.

The Warriors went harder on Jokic in the second half as well. They knew neither Looney nor Toscano-Anderson could stop Jokic in one-on-one defense. However, they were more intimidated by his passing ability to find open teammates. Such hesitation allowed Jokic to get 14 points and four assists, shooting at 6-8 in FGs.

The Warriors made up their mind to trap Jokic, but only when he drove toward the rim in the second half. Extra defenders only threw themselves to Jokic when he was too deep to pass outside. As a result, Jokic committed seven turnovers in the last two quarters. His cold touch of shooting 2-11 in FGs deprived him the chance of scoring on his own.

Slowly but surely, the Warriors were catching up bit by bit until the last possession. Facundo Campazzo missed two of his free throws, leaving the Nuggets a three-point lead (89-86) with only 2.5 seconds left. Warriors head coach called a timeout, told his players the plan for the last shot.

It's common sense that the Warriors would try to create shooting opportunity for Curry. The Nuggets knew it and that's why they didn't even look at Andre Iguodala when he was doing inbound. Curry failed to receive the ball and it was Iguodala who had to take the shot in the end. It's an air ball and the Nuggets won.

The Warriors had Curry, Wiggins, Otto Porter Jr. and Looney inside the bound in that possession. Wiggins was 3-6 in triples in this game. Porter Jr. was 0-1 but he has averaged 1.6 3-pointers per game at 39.7 percent so far this season. Perhaps coach Kerr sent Looney, who barely shot outside the paint, to set screen for Curry. It's too little help when all five of the Nuggets had their eyes on Curry.

Replacing Looney with another shooter could be an option too.

Other games on Tuesday (away teams come first):

Milwaukee Bucks 127-110 Orlando Magic

Washington Wizards 112-119 Miami Heat

Philadelphia 76ers 114-109 Toronto Raptors

Los Angeles Lakers 132-123 Houston Rockets

New York Knicks 96-88 Minnesota Timberwolves

Cleveland Cavaliers 104-108 New Orleans Pelicans

Oklahoma City Thunder 111-117 Sacramento Kings