The Denver Nuggets, who have had one easy win and three nail-biters this season, play host to the undefeated Oklahoma City Thunder, who blew Denver out in Ball Arena to open the season. The hope was that Denver would be ready for a near-immediate rematch after they shook the rust off, but instead Denver will be down two starters and hoping for reserves to fill the gaps. Jamal Murray will miss the game in concussion protocol and Aaron Gordon strained his calf early in Denver’s last-second win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday, which leaves the Nuggets searching for quick answers to big problems. Their starting unit has been one of the best in the league, but without 2/5 of it the bench will need to show up in a big way to fight off Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and the surging Thunder as they look to stay undefeated.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (4-3) vs Oklahoma City Thunder (7-0)
When: 7:00PM MST
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs does not condone piracy…unless it’s the romanticized 17th century type. Altitude TV where available, NBA League Pass if not in the Nuggets market. Altitude radio 92.5 FM. Bring an icepack and say it’s for a Nugget – they’re so beat up no one will second-guess you.
Rival blog: Thunderous Intentions
Injury report: Vlatko Cancar – doubtful (ankle), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles), Aaron Gordon – out (calf), Jamal Murray – out (concussion); Isaiah Hartenstein – out (hand), Nikola Topic – out (knee), Jaylin Williams – out (hamstring), Kenrich Williams – out (knee)
The (Two) Things
The thing to watch for: Who replaces Aaron Gordon?
The Nuggets already had a problem replacing Jamal Murray, who is in concussion protocol and still unavailable. Now they’ll have to replace Aaron Gordon, who will miss at least a couple of weeks with a calf strain according to Shams Charania of ESPN. Defensively, Gordon is Denver’s best overall defender especially of big wings and front court players, and that responsibility will probably fall to Peyton Watson. But he also has been a primary ball-handler with Murray out, bringing the ball up the court or organizing the offense with the bench, and now someone else will need to do that as well. Julian Strawther had been getting time with the ball in his hands and will likely see that increase even more, as may Christian Braun. It’s going to be all hands on deck to replace Gordon’s contributions by committee, but AG has very big shoes to fill over the next several games – and especially this one against a Thunder squad that handily throttled the Nuggets on opening night and can provide ruthless ball-pressure to unwary guards and wings.
The thing to remember: It’s very early in a long season – look for progress not perfection.
The Thunder have come out of the gate sprinting, while Denver has mostly stumbled its way to a winning record through 7 games. No, it would not be good to go down 0-2 to the Thunder in the season series with both losses coming on Denver’s home court. That said, Denver is not measuring itself against the Thunder now – that will come in the playoffs if they meet. The goal the Nuggets have to focus on is getting better, finding the right pieces for their rotation, figuring out how to handle these sorts of injuries and missing players… all the minutiae that gets you to the playoffs with home court in the first round. Nikola Jokic is playing like an MVP again, but Denver absolutely needs to find a way to reduce the workload he’s having to put in for them to get these wins. As Nikola said after the most recent Toronto game: “I would like to win all my games the rest of my life like we win against Utah.” He didn’t have to play that fourth quarter at all.
Most likely if he is sitting the fourth quarter in this game it’s because Denver is getting blown out again, because the kind of effort I would expect to need from him in a win is a full game masterpiece. That said, win or lose tonight pay attention to the margins, to the bench players needing more time to gel and find their roles. There are no moral victories in the NBA, but Denver is currently at a point where the growth they are getting from their non-starters is a more important measuring stick than just the win column. That said – a win would also go a long way toward easing concerns, so let’s hope for that.
