This was not an upset in Denver on Tuesday night. Vegas knew going in who was the better team. The smarter team. The more polished team. The team most likely not to beat itself in the last three minutes of the game. Vegas had the Nuggets as a 4.5 home favorite to beat the overly hyped underachieving Oklahoma City Thunder for a third straight time this season and in essence lock up the No. 2 seed in the West unless there is a complete and utter meltdown in the Mile High city in March and April.
This is precisely why I posted the Mike Malone video. Little things. Winnings things in clutch time which separate winning teams and losing teams. Mental things. Taking care of the ball. Grabbing defensive rebounds. Not committing boneheaded fouls. Those kind of things.
You can only witness this so many times and not sit there waiting for the Thunder to find a way to beat themselves.
Such was the case on Tuesday night in Denver as the Nuggets made all the plays in the final three minutes to break open a one possession game while defeating the Thunder by a count of 121-112.
The math is simple. Denver stands 42-18 while the Thunder drop to 38-22. Denver now leads the season series 3-0 and has the tiebreaker in its pocket if its needed after 82 games.
This was huge for the Denver Nuggets and was probably the biggest win for the Nuggets since the better days of the George Karl Era back when the Nuggets were relevant. It was a great sports day all around in Denver as the Rockies signed the best third baseman in baseball, Nolan Arenado, to an eight year– $255 million dollar deal making him the highest paid position player in MLB history.
But the biggest star in Denver on this night was Nikola Jokic who came within one rebound from notching a triple double with 36 pt, 9 rebound, 10 assist night. Jokic was simply magnificent and the best player on the floor. Steven Adams could not handle Jokic defensively and it was obvious. It wasn’t Perk obvious, but it was obvious.
Billy Donovan finally changed things up defensively in the second half using Jerami Grant and Nerlens Noel on Jokic, but after the Thunder came all the way back from eighteen points down to take the lead….Noel committed his sixth foul in 17 minutes of play. All told, Adams, Noel and Grant committed 15 fouls trying to handle perhaps the most versatile big man in the game today. But Noel fouling out was the biggest play in this game from my view.
This wasn’t just a statement for the Nuggets, this was a statement for Nikola Jokic…as in why aren’t we mentioning him in the same breath as Giannis, Harden and Paul George for the MVP award. On this night…it’s not crazy talk to think he climbed into the race.
In closing, this is what I take with me, in back to back games, Sam Presti’s Thunder have lost big games to the Kings and the Nuggets and are a combined 1-6 against these two teams who did not make the playoffs last season.
And you know what, if you’ve been reading my blog you know I pretty much felt the Thunder were going to lose both of these games on the morning of the games. It’s not in any way that I’m psychic or anything. It’s just the feeling that when it really matters the Thunder will find a way to beat themselves.
The Thunder host the equally underachieving Philly 76’ers on Thursday night inside the Peake.
So moving forward in Oklahoma City the goal is to hold off Portland, Utah or Houston for the No. 3 seed in the West.
This video is great. My son is the young man in the white Westbrook jersey with white long sleeves on the second row literally sitting behind Mike Malone. Ha. I was watching him almost more than the game itself when OKC came back from 18 points and took the lead.