The Denver Nuggets started strong and won the first quarter, but it was all downhill from there and they lost in a blowout 125-93. Nikola Jokic had 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in basically 3 quarters but that and Aaron Gordon’s gutty 8 point and 11 rebound performance were not nearly enough. OKC shut down the paint on Denver – the Nuggets had just 42 paint points to the Thunder’s 64 – and Denver could not hit the open shots that the Thunder dared them to take. Denver was just 10-of-45 from deep and turned the ball over 23 times as Oklahoma City’s defense flexed their championship mettle. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way offensively for the Thunder with 35 points, Jalen Williams added 24 and the team that worked all year to get this homecourt advantage took full advantage of it to move on in Game 7 and continue its championship journey, while Denver is left to plan for next year after healing up over the summer.
Game Flow
Christian Braun hit the first bucket of the game for Denver, answered by a Chet Holmgren drive for OKC. Braun had a curl for a dunk, Isaiah Hartenstein dunked a putback and Jokic spun and finished in the paint. Braun missed a three but MPJ cleaned it up and Denver led 8-4 early. Braun hit a late-clock three, but Hartenstein raced down the court for a dunk as Aaron Gordon cannot keep up in transition. Gordon did get a tough rebound tip on defense the next time and Jokic got to the line, and then again after misses from both teams. Jokic grabbed a defensive rebound and fed Braun for another layup. SGA finished past Jokic, but AG finished a traditional 3-point play. The Thunder couldn’t find their rhythm as Denver stretched the lead to double digits while the Thunder struggled to make threes, but then Denver went cold from the field too and the Thunder had a couple of nice finishes. A Russell Westbrook three interrupted the Thunder scoring, then a Chet Holmgren oop was answered by a tough Murray layup. Alex Caruso finally made a Thunder three, then Andrew Wiggins finished a tip shot in the final seconds and Denver went into the second quarter up 26-21.
The Thunder retook the lead in 62 seconds, with one bucket from SGA and two from Jalen Williams. Hartenstein had a dunk after a Julian Strawther turnover that made it 29-26 OKC and forced a Malone-era rage timeout from David Adelman. Jokic and Murray were back in at the 10 minute mark, and Murray airballed a 3 while AG made his to tie the game. Wiggins answered with a 3 of his own, and Strawther missed a three off a Jokic pass. The teams exchanged misses until Jokic made a layup and finished it with a foul and free throw. Lu Dort and Braun traded threes, Alex Caruso had a dunk, and Denver could not get their offense in gear in the second quarter. Too many turnovers and missed shots hurt Denver, but Aaron Gordon kept rebounding and got to the free throw line. Jalen Williams made a layup, Jokic got to the line for free throws, but Dort’s tip in of a Williams miss made it 42-39 OKC. Jamal Murray made his second shot, but Holgren finished an oop and Williams made two buckets to stretch OKC’s lead to 8. Jokic made a layup but then SGA made a 3 and Williams had two more finishes around Denver turnovers to wrap up an 18-5 Thunder run. Denver went into the half down 60-46.
The third quarter opened with a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dunk and a flagrant offensive foul call on Aaron Gordon for catching SGA with an elbow while swinging the ball on offense. Williams then hit a jump shot and SGA buried a three and it was 69-46 Thunder. Jokic found MPJ under the bucket for a finish, then Jamal Murray hit a three the next time down. MPJ had a dunk finish in transition but SGA matched with a paint finish of his own, then Cason Wallace did the same with OKC on an extended 36-16 run going back to the second quarter. Braun had free throws, Wallace banked in a corner three for OKC, and then Denver and OKC traded buckets for a couple of minutes. Denver’s reserves Watson and Strawther then struggled with misses that OKC ran out in transition on, and Strawther’s finally-made paint layup was answered by a Wiggins three and Holmgren’s free throws off of Russ’s block attempt left Denver in a 97-72 hole after 3.
After some awkward back-and-forths and an Oklahoma City challenge call for possession, SGA had a traditional 3-point play while Braun and Westbrook both missed three. SGA hit a jumper, Russ missed his and another Shai jumper made it a 102-72 game. Denver’s reserves started filtering in with Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson getting floor time in the blowout and Zeke Nnaji at center. OKC’s backups were unfortunately better than Denver’s so the lead kept growing with most of the fourth quarter as extended garbage time in the final game of Denver’s season and another step toward crowning OKC. Final score: 125-93, Thunder over the Nuggets.
Final Thoughts
– The Nuggets had a better ending to the season that I expected with a week to go in the regular season. It is uncommon to fire your coach and GM and have any kind of playoff success, but Denver did just that. The Clippers were an incredibly tough matchup for the Nuggets but Denver pulled it out, then game the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder everything they could handle. There are no moral victories, and the what-ifs regarding player health are just painful to contemplate, but despite miserable locker room vibes due to the front office and coaching conflict the Nuggets won 50 games and got to the second round in two long series. There are unfortunately limits to what even a Nikola-Jokic-centered squad can accomplish and when you only have 6 or 7 playable options you cannot win when half of them have poor games as happened tonight. Oklahoma City is an absolutely legit, title-worthy squad that did its best work today. That doesn’t take away from the fight and the heart in this Denver team.
– There should and will be team changes in the offseason. There are limits to what Denver can do in adding players, but getting the right GM is crucial to making sure the way the season has ended the past 2 years doesn’t carry forward. Taking the Thunder to 7 games in the second round while being as battered as they are is an impressive feat. Hopefully it doesn’t obscure the fact that mere health is not enough of a hope for improvement next year – one way to keep Denver healthier is to not require its starters to all play injured because there are no reserves capable of shouldering a load. Oklahoma City is a deeper team and withstood the Holmgren injury to get to the playoffs healthy as the #1 seed – and that health made all the difference in winning this series. Depth is not for playoff buckets, it is for starters having the juice in the playoffs to truly give 100%. Denver hasn’t had that the past 2 years and it has absolutely cost them another banner. I love the heart Denver showed, especially AG and Mike gutting out some painful stuff, but in the end the Nuggets need to do their utmost to make sure Jokic’s arms and Jamal’s ankles and AG’s legs are healthy next post-season – they owe it to those guys and Denver fans to stop wasting Jokic years with poor back-end roster construction. A new GM and a new coach need to give Denver more options when Jokic sits and more players able to pick up the slack. Nobody says it’s going to be easy, but the best player in the world deserves the best effort the organization can give him and his teammates to hang a banner next season – and next season starts now.
