The Denver Nuggets’ opening night loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder left us with a lot to take away. They lost 96-84 and have now started 0-1 in four of the last five years. Here are the biggest takeaways.
The Good: Defensive Intensity
The Nuggets’ opening night loss wasn’t all bad. They put up a great defensive effort against one of the league’s most potent offenses. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak of consecutive 20-point games came to an end thanks to the efforts of Christian Braun and Alpha Diallo.
Denver ranked 21st in defensive rating in each of the previous two seasons, hovering around 116.0. Against Oklahoma City, its single-game defensive rating was 104.3. That’s a significant jump.
In addition to the staunch perimeter defending, the Nuggets rebounded well. The boost came from rookie Trevon Brazile. He checked in late in the first quarter and immediately made his presence felt on the glass. He finished the game with 12 rebounds, which led the team, in 18 minutes.
There was an overall intensity that Denver brought to the table. For two and a half quarters, Denver matched Oklahoma City’s physicality. That, however, was effective for only so long as the offense was abysmal. That brings me to the bad.
The Bad: Offensive Execution
The Nuggets’ opening night loss was an extension of how their season ended last year. In their three road games against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they scored 96, 96, and 98 points. That trend of scoring less than 100 continued with 84 on 37.8% shooting from the field in Oklahoma City.
One concerning aspect of the offensive output was how Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray played. It was well established that the tandem did not play well against the Wolves in the playoffs last year. Jokic averaged 25.8 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 9.5 assists per game on 44.6% from the floor and 19.4% from three.
The wingman Murray was even worse. He averaged 23.7 points and 5.7 assists on 35.7% shooting overall and 26.2% from three. The efficiency took a big hit for both of them.
In this game, Jokic had 13, 7, and 5 on 5/19 shooting overall and 1/7 from three. Murray had six points on 2/11 shooting and six turnovers. That begs the question: Have elite defenses slowly started to figure out this two-man game?
There’s little doubt that the Murray-Jokic duo can still dominate most teams in the league. The concern is what happens against the handful of elite defenses Denver may need to beat in the postseason.
Minnesota slowed the duo down in the playoffs, and now OKC has done the same. What they have in common are bigs that can match Joker’s physicality and wings that can suffocate Murray. For the Wolves, the big men were Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid, while the Thunder had the big tandem in Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Minnesota had Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards to guard Murray, and Oklahoma City has a plethora of wings such as Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Gilgeous-Alexander, etc, for Murray. Will Denver be able to counter this formula?
End Of My Nuggets’ Opening Night Loss Rant
The Nuggets’ opening night loss was a display of everything that Denver basketball hasn’t been over the last half-decade. Normally, Jokic and Murray would lead the offense to be a well-oiled machine, and the defense would be the weakness. This game was the total opposite, as they held the Thunder to 98 points and scored just 84.
Even the bench scoring didn’t follow that rule. The Nuggets’ bench is normally a point of emphasis because of how poor they normally are. This game, they outscored the deepest team in the league 33-31 in terms of bench points.
There are two ways to look at this. One way is to say that the defense Denver displayed is legit, and they will be a more than solid team on that side of the ball all year. The offense was historically great in the regular season last year and will return to form in no time.
The other way is that the team’s offense was compromised because of how much effort was put into defense. The Nuggets aren’t built to hustle on defense, as they are an older team and must be more relaxed on defense to get the offense going.
Only time will tell which hypothesis is correct.
