The Denver Nuggets were coming out of their biggest win of the season and looking to follow it up with another big win against Oklahoma City Thunder. Things didn’t go exactly as planned, as the Nuggets played horribly for two and a half quarters. However, Thunder was unable to hold a Denver rally at the end of the game. Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Jr and Jamal Murray achieved a victory in a game that could not win. Nuggets steal one, 98-95.
The Nuggets started the game slowly. They were unable to pick up a basket until almost two minutes passed. This allowed Thunder to get an early lead behind Al Horford and a 6-0 run to open the game. Jokic eventually took control of the attack, first asserting himself before preparing his teammates for several buckets. In the middle of the quarter, Thunder still held the lead, but the attack on both sides died. It was very sloppy at the end of the quarter. Each team had a bucket here or there, but there wasn’t much good basketball. To close the room, Thunder ran again with the Nuggets turning the ball and not fighting the defense. After one, Denver lost to a dozen.
The bench unit continued to struggle to open the second quarter. There wasn’t much in the form of an attack plan, or just guys going one on four (Will Barton) or brick threes (everyone else). Murray and Jokic returned with eight minutes left and Denver losing by fourteen. Jokic rang a crazy bell hitting Sombor Shuffle, but other than that, it was still all Thunder. OKC made another 8-0 run behind Denver settling for ball shots and making stupid twists to put the lead at seventeen. Denver just couldn’t stop shooting himself in the foot. With the end of the quarter, Jokic seemed to get tired and decided to do things with his own hands. He scored eleven of the Nuggets’ last thirteen points at halftime and reached thirteen when the doorbell rang.
The Nuggets had some success in the attack to start the second half, but the defense was atrocious. Murray managed to get a few buckets to keep Thunder’s lead from increasing, but Denver also didn’t gain ground. Porter Jr was the next Nugget to start his attack and it finally started to turn the tide. He triggered a 13-4 run with the assistance (literally) of Jokic. He fell a little too much in love with the pitch as the room progressed, but made an incredible block. Jokic also got cold on the field, so Thunder increased his lead to double digits. At the end of the fourth, Hamidou Diallo inexplicably tried to block Murray’s punch on the buzzer and was called to the goalkeeper, who reduced the Thunder lead to nine.
The bank and Murray opened the room and failed to close the lead. JaMychal Green in particular was struggling and had been up all night. They also struggled to secure defensive rebounds. The Thunder cooled down while Monte Morris found a little rhythm. He triggered a 7-0 run to put Denver in two and force an OKC timeout. Shortly after, Murray spun his ankle on a walk. It looked very bad, but somehow he stayed in the game, but the attack stopped again. The Nuggets came close to two points before Oklahoma pushed him to eight. Denver is not over yet. Murray destroyed it and Barton contributed to retreat within three, with just under three minutes to go. The Nuggets were eliminated with the Thunder attack completely out of sync. Finally, they took the lead on a Jokić float with just over a minute to go. After another Thunder twist, Barton buried a huge three that turned out to be the dagger. Nuggets win 98-95.