Will Barton III went down with an injury, and the Nuggets left the Chase Center with a 119-97 loss Friday at Golden State.

Michael Malone said post-game that was not the reason for the loss.

“He went down early and we had to find other guys to step in and play, but I think all you guys are fishing for, ‘We lost this game because of Will’s injury.’ Don’t make that excuse for us,” Malone said. “Will Barton went down. He’s hurt, and we feel for him, but we all get paid on the first and the 15th. Do your job. We didn’t do our job tonight. I didn’t. Our players didn’t, and it’s unacceptable.”

Barton left the game less than a minute into the action with what was called a hamstring strain. It was quickly announced he would not return to the game. Malone did not have an update on the severity afterward.

“I haven’t had a chance to speak with our training staff,” the coach said.

The loss marked Denver’s first since starting point guard Jamal Murray suffered a season-ending knee injury five games ago, which also happened at Chase Center. Monte Morris, Murray’s initial replacement, was hurt two games later, also a hamstring injury, and has not played since.

“I’m just hoping that nobody else is going to get injured anymore. So we’re going to have the same group of guys playing, you know, just to get used to each other,” Nikola Jokic said before running down the list of recently injured players.

“All really good pick-and-roll players, good kind of team players. We will see what we can do. It’s an opportunity for someone else to step up and play.”

Michael Porter Jr. led the shorthanded Nuggets with 26 points, while Jokic, Denver’s candidate for the Most Valuable Player award, finished with 19 points, six rebounds and six assists. Aaron Gordon was the only other Nuggets player in double-figures scoring with 17 points. A bright spot on an otherwise dark night for Denver came from Gordon’s two 3-pointers on five attempts. That comes off his 2-for-4 night from 3 on Wednesday, his first night with multiple makes from deep in a Nuggets uniform.

“I think the percentages are going to play out, as they should,” Gordon said.

“I’m just taking my shots. I knew at some point they were going to start dropping, and I think they’re going to continue to start dropping at a higher clip.”

Golden State guard Stephen Curry heard “M-V-P” chants from the Warriors faithful as the hosts pulled away in the fourth quarter. Curry led all scorers with 32 points, while Kelly Oubre Jr. added 23. Golden State recorded 39 assists, 19 of which came from Draymond Green, on 45 made shots. More frustrating than Curry’s four 3-pointers was the number of transition points Denver allowed. The box score gave the Warriors a 29-12 advantage in fast-break points, and Malone thinks it should be an even larger gap.

“The numbers of layups they got in transition was unacceptable,” Malone said. “We struggled to score. We struggled to make shots, but we have to find a way to get stops and keep yourself in the game. We were just unwilling to do that tonight.”

The Nuggets trailed by four at halftime and had multiple opportunities to take the lead early in the third quarter but never converted. Golden State started the fourth with a 12-point lead before Porter hit consecutive 3s to cut it to seven. That was as close as the Nuggets would get.

“I think they were just better,” Jokic said.

The Nuggets have little time to figure out how to handle their latest injury with Houston scheduled to visit Denver’s Ball Arena on Saturday. Malone’s message to his team heading into Saturday’s game is concise.

“It’s really simple: Do your job,” Malone said. “No Jamal Murray, somebody’s got to step in. No Monte Morris, no Will Barton, somebody’s got to step in. It starts from playing hard. We did not play hard enough tonight, and that’s the most disappointing thing about this game, aside from the Will Barton injury.”