Denver has made a habit of breaking streaks. Tonight, they were unable to prevent Kevin Durant from extending his streak of 25+ point games to 35. The only major streak left for Denver to break is their own active 10 straight playoff appearances mark.
The Nuggets fell hard in Oklahoma City, 117-96. The Thunder filled up the tin for 41 points in the first quarter and never looked back. Kevin Durant lead all scorers with 27. Reggie Jackson managed a double-double, 16 points and 11 assists. The reanimated corpse of Caron Butler chipped in 23, his personal best since joining the Thunder. The only takeaway from this game is they call the fat shirtless man in the luchador mask is named Thundor. Good work Chris Marlowe for attempting to extract anything at all during garbage time. Who is worse, Thundor or the entire Minnesota Vikings fanbase?
Ty Lawson lead all Nuggets with 25 points. Kenneth Faried managed the quietest of double-doubles, 11 points and 11 rebounds. After falling down big in the first quarter, the Nuggets bench managed a 12-0 run to start the second quarter against OKC's bench. The Thunder answered with an 8-0 run of their own and the game, more or less, remained the same distance until its merciful conclusion. Denver had no energy, no fight. The Nuggets shot 39% from the field and 32.1% from three. OKC shot over 50%. End of story.
As this disappointing season winds down, there are still plenty of reasons to watch. The team still plays an up tempo brand of exciting basketball. Faried and Lawson are good enough to keep Denver in most games. But on the second night of a back to back, with only 9 players for Brian Shaw to utilize, the Nuggets don't stand much of a chance. This final stretch of games includes San Antonio twice, Memphis twice, Houston twice, and Golden State… twice. With rest and home court, the Nuggs will still put up a fight against these tough adversaries. Let's enjoy the stress free basketball and take notes on which young players step up and which shall be forever banished to the D-League, or Philly.
