The 10-piece gives you the ten things you need to know from the Nuggets’ 82 games this season.
1. BEST WIN OF THE SEASON: The list is small but this was a massive win. Without Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, Denver took down the previously undefeated best team in the league, proving to everyone that they are still a force to be reckoned with in the West.
2. Speed Kills: We’ll talk about Joker and Russ and the kiddos and THAT BLOCK, GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, but this game was first and foremost about pace. Denver had nine fastbreak points in the first half. They had 11 in the 3rd quarter when they erased the 16-point deficit OKC had built. Denver’s kids (Peyton Watson, Christian Braun, and Julian Strawther) caused chaos by running the ball off every miss and turnover. The result wasn’t just easy points for Denver, but speeding up OKC’s methodical and surgical offense, getting them off-kilter.
3. Tempo, Tempo, Tempo: After the game, Michael Malone said that his emphasis was to run at the half, urging his team to avoid trying to score in the halfcourt on OKC’s No.1 defense. Nikola Jokic told reporters in the locker room that different games call for different things but that Denver needs to run, especially at home, vs. OKC.
4. Sweet Revenge: Peyton Watson said after the game that he thinks about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-winner over him last season “bi-weekly.” He said he’s not waiting until the playoffs to go hard, he wants to do that every night. (You can hear Russell Westbrook speaking through the youngster.) Watson had to lift to the rafters to get a hand on SGA’s attempted game-winner Wednesday. Lucky for Watson, he’s got the hops to do just that.
5. Certified Shooter: I’m willing to go ahead and certify the results of the election of Christian Braun as a certified shooter. Braun scored a season-high 24 and 4-of-8 from 3. He’s now averaging 56-45-81 shooting splits on the season. He’s been Denver’s second-best player this season, a massive win for Denver’s gamble on him last summer.
6. Quote Of The Night: Russell Westbrook had both, first saying of Michael Malone and his competitive nature, “We’re both a little psycho. That’s why we got along from the get-go.” Westbrook also spoke on how important it is for him to go hard every night. “Sometimes you take those Tuesday, Wednesday games during the season for granted. But tomorrow’s never promised to no one.”
7. Elite Fill-In: Westbrook finished with 29 points, six boards, six assists. He was also 10-of-15 from the field and 3-of-4 from deep. That the Nuggets got that production from Westbrook and he wound up a -14 is either a credit to OKC, a sign of the perils of single-game plus-minus, or a signal that the Nuggets are better off attacking in waves offensively than with a heavy hammer.
8. Numbers Lie: I will continue to shout to the heavens that judging Jokic’s games by his box score is a fool’s errand. Jokic had 23 points on 20 shots, five turnovers, 20 rebounds, and 16 assists. But his impact on the game was felt in his relentless attack, not his precision for a night. If Westbrook was the hammer that couldn’t crack the shield, Jokic shattered OKC’s despite another tough defensive game from Chet Holmgren.
9. Resilient: That was the word Russell Westbrook used for Peyton Watson who had some mistakes in this one as you’d expect. But recovering from those mistakes and playing through them is huge. A source said after the game that developing young talent and winning is one of the hardest things to do in the league, and that’s what made Wednesday’s win so great.
10. Up Next: Denver takes on the reeling Miami Heat Friday in a 2023 Finals rematch. Jimmy Butler will probably not shoot a game-winning three.
