The Nuggets 10-piece is the 10 things you need to know from every Denver Nuggets game from Locked On Nuggets. Here are the 10 things you need to know from the Nuggets’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder 102-87 on opening night.
- Open And Shut: It was bad. There’s no way around it. The Nuggets looked old, tired, slow, and low on firepower. The Thunder looked young, hungry, and overflowing with offensive options. Denver was outclassed in Game 1 vs. OKC.
- Long-Term Plan: But the goal for Denver is to be the team they need to be by April. That’s clear. This is going to be a work in progress, and a lot of the problems are going to cause pain to fix by April. There’s time, but it’s going to be a challenge.
- Math Win! The defense was good... ish. The Thunder had a 103.1 offensive rating, which is great defense. But OKC also shot 8-of-36 from 3. Denver was worse (7-of-38) but for OKC who was 2nd in 3-point percentage last season, that’s a real off night. However, Denver having more attempts from 3 than OKC is a good thing. Russell Westbrook and Payton Watson having 10 of them? Not so much.
- Failure To Launch: The offense was miserable. Forget the numbers. It wasn’t just the bricked threes of Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray combining for 9-of-30 from the field. Aaron Gordon had 12 points on 12 shots against an undersized Thunder team without Isaiah Hartenstein. Denver was 49% on 2-point shots. That cannot happen.
- Surprisingly Chill: Michael Malone was surprisingly not filled with rage post-game. Malone credited the defense and praised Christian Braun. He said he felt they were mostly good looks. In general, Malone was encouraged by the work on the 3-point defense and wasn’t upset about effort. One, Malone is always more willing to lose on offense because he trust the offense to be great, and two, he tends to respond to dark moments with positivity. Take that for what it’s worth.
- The Bright Spot: Christian Braun was excellent in his first start finishing with 16 points on 8-of-15 shooting. He was so much more in control on drives to the basket than he was last year which was a big concern of mine. CB said postgame that playing with Jokic sets him up for easy layups and you get confidence after you see a few go down. Braun also helped hold SGA to 11-of-24 shooting with tremendous defense and added seven rebounds.
- Predictably Poor: Peyton Watson missed all of preseason with injury, the same way Christian Braun did last year. CB struggled for most of last season because he didn’t get into an early rhythm which impacted his minutes. Now Watson is facing the same problem. He was uncomfortable, unsteady, and shot 1-of-7. It’s a tough matchup for Watson with all the wings, but you need to be patient with him for a while.
- BURN THE BENCH WITH FIRE: Ryan Blackburn said before the game he thought the bench would be better but not great, kind of mid, between 0 and -4 in plus-minus. I yelled at him in the press room (jokingly). Russell Westbrook was -24 and 2-of-10 from the field with five boards and five assists. Russ had moments, but the spacing in the second unit was without a true big (Dario Saric had a rough night, too; you’ll hear more from Swipa on him on Friday’s show). Malone said he believes in the Murray-Westbrook combo and he needs to help them. He might be the only one.
- SO LONG, SUCKERS: Jamal Murray left the arena without speaking to media.
- DIKEMBE FOREVER: The Nuggets held a 55-second moment of applause in honor of Dikembe Mutombo at the first break in the first quarter. It was a really nice moment and a great way to celebrate a Nuggets legend and maybe the league’s greatest humanitarian.
