The Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder did not disappoint in their ballyhooed matchup on Friday night. The stars shone for both teams in a game that took an extra five minutes to determine a winner. Nikola Jokic had a monster triple-double, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored thirty-six points in thirty-three minutes and the game was an exciting contest down to the final minutes. Unfortunately for the Nuggets, their late game execution woes reared their heads again and ultimately spelled doom. They lose in overtime 127-121.
The game got chippy almost from the jump with SGA throwing the ball at Jokic after Joker fouled Isaiah Hartenstein. He received a technical foul while the game went back and forth with both teams struggling to get a basket. OKC found their offense first and went on a 7-0 run. Denver settled down but they couldn’t keep the Thunder out of the paint. The game stayed chippy with Aaron Wiggins being the next member of the Thunder to get into a tussle with Jokic. All the whistles and chippiness worked in the Nuggets favor and they got themselves a small advantage halfway through the first. Their defense was also outstanding and they held the Thunder without a point for almost four minutes which resulted in a 20-2 run. Tim Hardaway Jr. had his shot going and started knocking down threes with the first coming to a close. By the end of the first the Nuggets led 33-19.
The Thunder found their focus to open the second quarter and opened on a 9-2 run. The Nuggets called a timeout and pulled it together after that but the bench group was still really struggling to find points. That precipitated an early return to the court for Jokic which helped a bit on offense but it was still a battle. Bruce Brown gave the Nuggets some solid minutes off the bench and ended up closing out the half on the floor. SGA battled for OKC and kept them withing striking distance but the Nuggets were able to keep in front. By the end of the half they led 59-50.
The Nuggets held their lead opening the second half with Jokic and Murray offsetting some easy Chet Holmgren buckets. Jamal kept pushing and getting his offense in a variety of ways. He was the key catalyst to the Nuggets staying in front. The problem was there wasn’t much else besides Jamal and the Thunder weren’t going to go away. Denver played the Thunder tough, Christian Braun hit a crazy layup, Hardaway had an awesome drive to the basket and they stayed in front with the third progressing. Shai kept getting to the line and was the majority of Oklahoma City’s offense but couldn’t close the gap. The Nuggets started to go cold from three while the Thunder doubled Nikola anytime he had the ball. Denver hung tough and were able to close out the third still leading 83-77.
It was a sloppy start to the fourth quarter for Denver with a couple of turnovers and that let the Thunder take the lead on a Lu Dort three. The Nuggets bench group was struggling and that meant a return to the game for Jokic with still nine minutes left in the quarter and Denver trailing by a bucket. The game got heated when Dort gave Jokic a dirty hip check which Nikola did not take kindly to. It resulted in an altercation with Dort, Jokic and Jaylin Williams that got Lu thrown out and Nikola and Jaylin offsetting technicals. That got the Nuggets the lead briefly but Jared McCain tied it with a three and just under seven minutes to go. Another couple minutes went by, another flagrant foul by OKC was followed up with a Jokic three to complete a 7-0 Denver run. After that it went back and forth, a steal and three by Caruso got the Thunder back within one and then he hit another three to give them the lead. Denver came back, a Jokic floater that had no business falling tied the game at 107 and the Nuggets got a chance to take the lead but Cam Johnson missed a corner three setting up OKC for one last shot. They couldn’t convert and the game headed to overtime.
Denver couldn’t get a basket early in OT and so the Thunder got a small lead. Denver got no points in the first two and a half minutes of overtime which put the Thunder lead at five. The Nuggets got it back to three and had a fastbreak but Hardaway threw it away and Caruso cashed in a layup on the other end with just over a minute to go. After a defensive three seconds on the Thunder, Denver had yet another chance to close the gap but turned it over. Still the Nuggets had chances, but just could not get a basket in the final moments until Murray starting hitting threes when it was too late. OKC closes it out and gets a 127-121 win.
