The Denver Nuggets entered Wednesday with a 1-0 series lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder. But, despite the momentum riding high following Aaron Gordon’s game-winner on Monday, the Thunder outplayed the Nuggets in every aspect.
The Thunder got the 140-106 win, and Nuggets coach David Adelman said his team “got punked” by OKC.
“We got punked. They came out with the right intensity and we didn’t…we aren’t just going to flush this.” Adelman said. “We have to be better and we know that.”
Moreover, Nikola Jokic was blunt as could be about his team’s performance, per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
“Basically it was one team playing tonight. Even the turnovers, misses. They were aggressive, they were going by us. They were much much better than us today and that’s why the score is so bad.”
The Nuggets scored 56 points in the first half, which isn’t bad, although the Thunder scored an NBA playoff record 87 first-half points.
The Thunder basically won every category: Field goal, 3-point and free-throw percentage, assists, rebounds, blocks, steals and turnovers.
The Nuggets had 20 turnovers in the game, although they did out-rebound them on the offensive glass, 13-8, but that could be due to the Thunder shooting lights-out from the field all game long.
Jokic had 17 points on 6-of-16 from the field with eight rebounds and six assists as well as six turnovers. However, Russell Westbrook led Denver with 19 points off the bench.
Aaron Gordon shot 3-of-12, Michael Porter Jr. went 2-of-10 from the field, and Christian Braun went just 1-of-6 as the entire Denver team was caught off guard by the Thunder’s surprising outburst early on.
The good news is this: The Nuggets now go to Denver for Games 3 and 4 of the series, so there is a solid chance to rebound from a disastrous Game 2 outing.
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