Nuggets at Thunder recap: Nuggets fail to close out Thunder, lose in overtime

….it’s amazing. If the game is close, we fold like cheap lawn chairs…very sad.

That seemed both inevitable and yet truly devastating. I’m glad to see the Nuggs grit out a great road effort, but it means little when we lose a game we should’ve won. Is it a small consolation to wonder whether KD and Westbrook could do that nightly on us (or anybody)? No, not really. The NBA “superheroes” prevailed tonight.

1) if they make a playoff run they better be a top 4 seed, I am tired of one and dones, so no low seed crap anymore.
2) Go the way of RMC and tank to the lottery. Purge away the bad with Fernandez and Miller, and start playing Ham, Faried, and Stone more.
Also I do think Karl can be a good coach if he has the right personnell, but this group should not be with him. Karl has to have a star to bail him out he relies heavily on few people in crunch time when this team needs a coach who understands to put the right players in at the right time rather than riding tired ones.
You can win without stars, but you need a coach who knows the team strength is depth and actually rotates players in vs riding them till they die

Didn’t like Karl’s lineups – we had a chance to win this one though.

Off to go listen to some J Dilla and drift off to sleepy land. Much needed.

And still find a way to lose both games?? I want the lottery, I’m tired of excuses and incompetent coaching

in the first half we saw koufos and bird be effective together and then mozgov and koufos play well together.

but maybe I’m wrong since Karl never went back to it.:(

Imagine how devestaing having koufos and bird go against other teams second units on a nightly basis? We got a taste tonight but George loves his small ball.

I will point out we saw Ty fail when he had to be big time. The second tolast nugs possession at the end of the fourth before durant tied it. It was obvious the play was for Ty to drive to the hoop after a pick. He was way to hesitant and ended up shooting a 3, this was the key play to get it back to a 2 possession game. This will make Ty better I hope, he will use this to learn from.

Both “good” coaches according to the national media, but can’t win with the talent they are given.
To be honest Sloan couldn’t win with taken either.
Is there a way Phil can come to Denver??? In our dreams lol

but this was a game that quite frankly we should not have been in, but we were with a chance to win it at the end. Maybe we lost because of Karl’s “wacky” rotations. Maybe that was the reason we didn’t get blown out by 20. I think it was just too much Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka for the team to handle. Our best defense for all 3 of those guys were wearing street clothes tonight. I thought we played valiantly. Was Bird in the game to long? Maybe. Maybe if he is subbed out earlier we don’t even make it to OT. There is way to much negativity on this site for this to be a Nugges FAN site.

GO NUGGETS!!!!

Peace out

Mark my words. Once he grows a pair watch this team take off. He’s still playing way too soft for as big as he is.

I have a straight up man-crush on the kid! He just needs to be a “bigger” big man. It was nice to see him pump fake Ibaka a couple of times but part of me was like “Slam that sh** in his face!!!! You’re 7 foot 12 for crying out loud!”

I mean…I just don’t understand. Koufus was 13/9 in THIRTEEN MINUTES and you can’t find a way to get him in until the waning minutes of overtime??

And for all his great plays tonight, Dre clearly cannot be effective past 30 minutes, especially in consecutive quarters, without a break!

I just shake my head, man. It was an utter coaching loss. Those lineups down the stretch were worse than bad, they sent a message to all our young players. This is what Mozgov, Koufus, Faried, Stone and Hamilton heard:

“I trust you so little that I would rather play a gassed Andre Miller and Al Harrington from the 3rd quarter onward and take the loss instead of give you the opportunity.”

That’s all there is to it, really.

the team’s defense is terrible 51 points to Durant and 40 to Westbrook? Really?! To top it off, we don’t seem to hardly ever keep a team under 100 points

Let’s get that one against Minnesota at home.

But the fact we nearly won without Gallo / Nene / Rudy is pretty impressive.

Wait till we have those guys back and Chandler to boot. AAA leads the scoring. It’s A Shame Faried wasn’t more effective tonight.

And GK’s “roll out the ball and let the players figure it out” approach really kills us in tight games and playoff games. You have to be able to execute plays down the stretch, and the Nuggs free lance offense stalls in tight games down the stretch, where they often play one on one ball and take bad shots at the buzzer. Karl needs to work on some designed half court offense in these tight games or we are going to be one of the worst closing teams in the League. Really like the effort against Memphis and OKC, so that is encouraging, and Karl deserves credit for having his guys ready to play. Just wish we had more execution in the half court down the stretch.

9th spot

I say get into the lottery and get a guy who can score in crunch time, you know someone who doesn’t pucker up when things get tight (which is like every bball game)

the Thunder makes me sad that the Nuggs never progressed like them. That team is good and is only getting better.

guess that’s what you get when it’s Melo, Kmart & JR vs KD, Westbrook & Ibaka…who would you rather have?

If you are a Thunder fan. I’m not so I think it sucked to see a tired bunch of guys trying to keep up with Durantula and Pestbrook. Why didn’t our coaching staff rest guys like Andre Miller and Al Harrington. What a stupid loss.

only works for 45 minutes. possessions are too valuable at the end of games and in the playoffs. but GK obviously doesnt value possessions bc there is no offense/defense substitutions. really Al and Dre tryna guard KD? ridiculous. its like last season when he thought Felton could guard KD.

and i like Bird’s energy. but i dont like him in crunch time on D bc he always goes for weakside blocks and we tend to give up a lot of offensive rebounds/putbacks.

so fustrating.

through in Ibaka and it’s not even close.
That being said, I was glad to see this team fight it out & be in a close game wtih a team that is just better. When Nene & Gallo come back it’ll make things better, though we’re not beating OKC as currently constructed.

with no halfcourt structure, Ty really doesnt know how to run any type of halfcourt offense. GK’s message to Ty is always the same, “Attack attack attack.” da fuck? i can do that.

man how bout teaching our guys to set legit screens? teach our shooters like AAA how to use a off the ball screen properly.

Rotations. Lineups. “Play-calling.” Inexplicable. Beyond belief. It’s oh so easy to see how Nuggets fans are so flummoxed by it all.

You know what else is pathetic? Some of the fans here calling out others for having strong, informed opinions about the above. PLEASE express your contrary opinions without calling into question the loyalties and/or sanity of those with whom you disagree.

If for nothing else, to be our Durant stopper. Will matches up about as well as anyone can with with KD with his size, long arms and great perimeter defense. Signing Will is critical if we ever want to compete with the Thunder.

may win it all this year

I still feel the same about the coaching fail in the 4th qtr, and that it seems that Coach Karl is getting progressively worse in critical late game situations, which is more concerning in that it could be beyond “basketball reasons” that would rather not be acknowledged, but hope the front office is paying attention.

But his refusal to utilze Koufos more last night, when Kouf was so incredibly effective during his limited minutes, was absolutely mind boggling.