(Basketball news) The Golden State Warriors took a 3-0 lead in the playoff series after getting 118-113 victory over the Denver Nuggets. For the Warriors, Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole scored 27 points each, Klay Thompson made six 3-pointers on his way to 26 points as the trio have been too hot to handle for the Denver defence during the course of the entire playoff series. For the Nuggets, Aaron Gordon added 18 points for the Nuggets and Nikola had 37 points but this was their seventh straight loss in the postseason as the other six losses were by an average of 16 points. With this result the Warriors have the chance to wrap up the series on Sunday.

''We played great down the stretch on both'' ends of the court, Thompson said.

''For Draymond to battle him all night and to make that play in the end was just a huge part of the win,'' Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

''I love how we fought tonight,'' said Malone, who challenged his team to replicate that effort Sunday: ''Are we going to roll over? Are we going to fight like hell and send this back to Golden State?''

''I've been a fighter my whole life. I know how I'm approaching it,'' Cousins said. ''And I expect everyone else in that locker room to do the same. … I'm a fighter, I'll go out swinging.''

''It was a lovely environment,'' Curry said. ''I love the way we responded.''

The Dallas Mavericks took the series lead by winning 126-118 against the Utah Jazz. For the Mavericks, Brunson scored 31 points playing with a bruised back as they were without their talisman Luka Doncic as Spencer Dinwiddie scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for them, Maxi Kleber had 17 points and Dorian Finney-Smith added 14 points. For the Jazz, Donovan Mitchell scored 28 of his 32 points in the second half as Bojan Bogdanovic added 24 and Mike Conley had 21. With this result the Mavericks have taken a 2-1 lead in the playoff series as they play the fourth game on Saturday.

''I saw how hard the team was playing when I was laying back there,'' Brunson said. ''It gave me a little mojo to come back out there and do my thing.''

''We're all on the same page,'' Brunson said. ''We're all clicking. We're all talking and communicating.''

''I just told the guys we haven't done anything,'' Kidd said. ''They won at our place and now we won here. We need to put this game behind us and figure out what we need to do better.''

''His shot-creating and shot-making has been amazing all season, but the determination he has coming down the stretch to hit those big shots and the confidence he has is just fun to watch,'' Kleber said.

''He's unique in his physical strength and his ability to kind of keep his dribble alive in the lane where he really uses his body. He's able to play with his feet on the floor, so if you do try to come over and help, he has the ability to find people and spray the ball out,'' Utah coach Quin Snyder said.

The Memphis Grizzlies made a 26 point comeback to win 105-96 against the Minnesota Timberwolves and also taking the lead in the playoff series. For the Grizzlies, Desmond Bane made seven 3-pointers and had 26 points as Brandon Clarke scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half for Memphis, which closed the game on a staggering 50-16 run over the final 15:10 and Ja Morant recorded his first triple double in the postseason with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. For the Timberwolves, D'Angelo Russell had 22 points and eight assists as last year’s number 1 pick Anthony Edwards finished with 19 points. With this result the Grizzlies take 2-1 series lead as the 4th game will be on Friday at Minnesota.

''We found a way to get some stops. Our offence started clicking a little bit more,'' Bane said, ''and the rest is history.''

''That's why we're really the deepest team in the league,'' said Ja Morant,

“No one said it was going to be easy. We don't want it to be easy. We want it to be extremely hard, and it was,'' said Patrick Beverley, 

''When we get too high, it comes back and it haunts us,'' said D'Angelo Russell,

“It's really tough. We've got to regroup,'' said Towns

Also read: NBA: Celtics win again while Bulls make a comeback against the Bucks