Denver's energy and effort again set the tone, leading them on defense for a win.

First Quarter

Ty Lawson’s penetration is creating for Denver early, his drives are creating all type of easy looks for Timofey Mozgov and Wilson Chandler. There’s a lot of Mozgov early, he’s being very active rolling to the paint. Shaw has him involved in a lot of pick and rolls.

On defense Denver is aggressive defending in the paint, except for Kenneth Faried who’s letting Serge Ibaka convert off the dribble on top of his pick-and-roll conversions. They also struggled in the boards as the Thunder have eight second chance points.

Second Quarter

The bench came in and immediately truncated any momentum the Nuggets had. Denver’s offense stagnated without a true point guard of running the show.

Oklahoma City started to get into the paint, particularly with simple passes. Kendrick Perkins for one was working JaVale McGee on the boards. The second units energy level dropped off drastically, the Thunder are getting the shots they want, even if they are not readily converting them.

An early time out and pep talk from head coach Brian Shaw had the second unit has picking up the energy on the defensive end, leading to a couple easy baskets. The Nuggets end the half in the same place the began the game.

Third Quarter

The Nuggets defense took over in the third. The starters picked up where they left off at the beginning of the game, getting into the paint and generating turnovers. Lead was stretched to 11 in the first three minutes of the 3rd quarter.

The Denver defense was swarming block shots, deals, contested shop all around. This flowed into Denver's offense allowing them to get out and run a little bit. The lead to 14 to end the third quarter.

Fourth Quarter

Denver, seemingly relaxing with a double-digit lead, settled for outside shots which, after a few OKC jumpers, fell to single digits. That created a sense of urgency in the Nuggets as they quickly got back to moving the ball into the paint on pick-and-rolls and contesting well on defense.

That lead dwindled after Denver's defense fell lax again, and OKC converted outside jumpers to bring the lead to three with three minutes left in the game, but Denver weathered the storm for the 107-100 win.