The Denver Nuggets had their biggest standout win of the season and wanted to follow it up with another big win against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Things didn’t exactly go as planned, as the Nuggets played terribly for two and a half quarters. However, the Thunder could not hold a Denver rally in the back of the game. Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray won a match in which no business won. Nuggets steal one, 98-95.
The Nuggets started the game slowly. They could not get a basket until almost two minutes had passed. This enabled the Thunder to get an early lead behind Al Horford and a 6-0 run to open the game. Eventually, Jokic took control of the offense and first made himself known before setting up his teammates for several buckets. Halfway through the quarter, the Thunder still held the lead, but the offense on both sides died out. It was quite sloppy at the end of the quarter. Each team got a bucket here or a bucket there, but there was not much good basketball. To end the quarter, the Thunder started running again with the Nuggets turning the ball over and not defending. After one Denver with a dozen chased.
The banking unit still struggled to open the second quarter. There was not much in the way of a plan to the offense, just guys scoring one on four (Will Barton) or tries (all). Murray and Jokic came back with eight minutes to go into the half and Denver with fourteen behind. Jokic hit a crazy buzzer that beat Sombor Shuffle, but otherwise it was just Thunder. OKC hit another 8-0 run behind Denver and kicked the jumps and committed stupid turnover to put the lead at seventeen. Denver just couldn’t stop shooting themselves in the foot. At the end of the term, it seems like Jokic is getting tired of it and decides to take matters into his own hands. He scored eleven of the Nuggets finals thirteen points in the half and got it within thirteen when the buzzer sounded.
The Nuggets had success on offense to start the second half, but the defense was horrible. Murray got a few pickups to grow the Thunder’s lead, but Denver also couldn’t win field. Porter Jr. was the next Nugget to get his offense underway and it finally started to turn the tide. He incited a 13-4 run with the assist (literally) of Jokic. He fell a little too in love with the jump shot as the quarter progressed, but he had an incredible block. Jokic also went cold off the field, so the Thunder increased their lead to double figures. Right at the end of the quarter, Hamidou Diallo inexplicably tried to stop a Murray shift at the buzzer and was asked for goal kick, which dropped the Thunder lead to nine.
The bench and Murray opened the fourth and could not close the lead. JaMychal Green in particular struggled and had been up all night. They also struggled to secure defensive setbacks. However, the Thunder got cold while Monte Morris found some rhythm. He incited a 7-0 run to get Denver within two and force an OKC timeout. Shortly afterwards, Murray twists his ankle on a ride. It looked really bad, but somehow he stayed in the game, but the offense got stuck again. The Nuggets came as close as two points before Oklahoma moved it back to eight. Denver, however, was not finished. Murray cleared it out and Barton penetrated to pull back within three with just under three minutes to go. The Nuggets were smeared away with the Thunder attack completely out of sync. Eventually, they take the lead on a Jokic driver with just over a minute to go. After another Thunder turnover, Barton buried a big try that turned out to be the dagger. Nuggets won 98-95.