2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West Semifinals: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #4 Denver Nuggets (Series tied 1-1)

[durden_tyler]

tonight will be telling

It is going to feel like the Nuggets' must-win game since the Thunder are just the better team and giving up the homecourt advantage back so soon is not ideal.

By the way, the Nuggets are 5.5 point dogs this G3. A very curious line.

[SpurNani]

OKC should win going away again...however if it's a tight game in the 4th, I favor Denver.

I still don't trust OKCs offense or Jalen Williams. So much of their offense is generated off the other team self destructing and turning the ball over..If Nuggets can play a relatively clean game and keep it within striking range late, look out.

Denver is probably the best in the league at executing their offense and getting the shots they want late because of Jokic.

[SpurNani]

Yep. In that regard, he's the opposite of Ja Morant.

It doesn't help that he is Canadian.

6'6" guard out of Kentucky. 3 level scorer and above average on defense. Showcases strong leadership skills, is confident and well liked by his teammates. Competing against athletic freaks, giants, and basketball savants for the best player in the league title while leading a team with a bunch of young players to the best record. If he was American, he'd be the face of the league.

He would be the face of sports if he was American - let alone basketball -

I think SGA should win the MVP this year, but he isn't that entertaining to watch. I mean he's amazing obviously but to be the face of the league, your game needs some box office appeal to it. SGA is one of the best midrange monster's i have ever seen but it's just not swaggy enough to sell as face of league. Kawhi and Devin Booker are American superstars who both do alot of what SGA does and they never came close to being the face.

Flagg or Ant.

[Optms]

I just realized that the next game in the series is late Friday then afternoon Sunday. Brutal for a team with no depth.

Lack of depth isn't hurting the Knicks last i checked. Nuggets have Jokic and still make excuses.

[Hans1984]

Denver never showed up to this game. How do you give up almost 150 points in a playoff game?

[bledredwine]

It doesn't help that he is Canadian.

6'6" guard out of Kentucky. 3 level scorer and above average on defense. Showcases strong leadership skills, is confident and well liked by his teammates. Competing against athletic freaks, giants, and basketball savants for the best player in the league title while leading a team with a bunch of young players to the best record. If he was American, he'd be the face of the league.

He would be the face of sports if he was American - let alone basketball -

I think SGA should win the MVP this year, but he isn't that entertaining to watch. I mean he's amazing obviously but to be the face of the league, your game needs some box office appeal to it. SGA is one of the best midrange monster's i have ever seen but it's just not swaggy enough to sell as face of league. Kawhi and Devin Booker are American superstars who both do alot of what SGA does and they never came close to being the face.

Flagg or Ant.

I wish Ant could be the face and I was so hyped on him just a year ago,

but I really don't like how he's developed his game. He used to body guys and take fadeaway for free buckets.
Now, he has trouble creating shots in the mid because of his focus on threes. Because of this, he doesn't
seem as effortless and reliable as last year. He's still a great talent, but between him and SGA, it's currently not even close.

Once again, huge ANT fan. I'm a huge fan of anyone who's reminiscent of Jordan in any way (competitiveness, game, looks, all similar in a way)....
I expect better next year.

[cgf]

I just realized that the next game in the series is late Friday then afternoon Sunday. Brutal for a team with no depth.

Lack of depth isn't hurting the Knicks last i checked. Nuggets have Jokic and still make excuses.

Denver doesn't have nearly as good of a supporting cast as New York.

[Bergmaniac]

The Nuggets were suprisingly great on the second game of back to backs in the regular season but it's hard to see them doing the same in a similar situation deep in the playoffs against the super athletic and deep Thunder. The scheduling is idiotic no matter what happens anyway, surely the schedule could have been arranged so the teams playing early on Saturday and Sunday had 2 days break between games.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Scheduling has been very dumb imo. Don’t need massive rest but there’s no reason to make it grueling on purpose. For one, I don’t like hearing the excuse, so let’s take it off the table.

[Optms]

I just realized that the next game in the series is late Friday then afternoon Sunday. Brutal for a team with no depth.

Lack of depth isn't hurting the Knicks last i checked. Nuggets have Jokic and still make excuses.

Denver doesn't have nearly as good of a supporting cast as New York.

No but when you include Jokic, then talent levels is all comparable if not favoring Denver.

Difference is Knicks play defense at an elite level. They aren't just a one trick pony. Depth is irrelevant. They run 5 guys on max minutes every game.

[cgf]

Lack of depth isn't hurting the Knicks last i checked. Nuggets have Jokic and still make excuses.

Denver doesn't have nearly as good of a supporting cast as New York.

No but when you include Jokic, then talent levels is all comparable if not favoring Denver.

Difference is Knicks play defense at an elite level. They aren't just a one trick pony. Depth is irrelevant. They run 5 guys on max minutes every game.

Eh, Jokic is great, but is the gap between him and Towns as big as the gap between Brunson & Murray? What about the gap between Gordon & Anunoby? Porter & Bridges? Hart & Braun? Robinson+McBride & Jordan+Russ?

Yes the Knicks have a good defense that's stepped up and playing great right now while Denver's is awful, but the Knicks also currently have 7 really good NBA players who are healthy enough to play their well.

Denver had 6 good(ish) NBA players even before MPJ broke down. Now they have just 5 guys...and that's counting Braun, who may or may not be getting meaningful minutes if he was on the Knicks since I don't think he's much better than Shamet, who isn't.

Not saying Denver would be up 2-0 with 2 more guys, just that depth is more of a problem for them than it is for us...especially when accounting for Porter's injury and them needing 7 to end the Clippers.

[HotRocks34]

Legler and Adam Mares on the OKC game plan against Jokic.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Gotta get a nap in before this 10pm eastern start time.

The SGA jersey wasn’t super lucky in game 1. The Steven Adams throwback was too lucky. Maybe the JDub or Chet jersey would be just right.

[HotRocks34]

Matt Moore and a guest talking about the Game 2 whistle.

Swipa makes a good point about the up and down refereeing in last year's DEN-MIN series. It was all over the place.

[lethalizer]

Ehem, to get back to talking about actual basketball instead of a delusional Denver fan's bombastic takes..

OKC was very good at executing their offensive game plan the other night, and they're one of the best teams in the league in generating good looks overall.

I highly doubt the role player performances will travel on the road against a team like Denver, in terms of shot making.

I predict the Thunder will heavily rely on Shai to get its points, and relying much more on Caruso this time around, who only got 10 minutes the other night.

You can win on the road with your offense come playoff time, but especially for this OKC team, the defense will have to show up. There will be droughts, you just have to avoid giving up huge runs when your offense gets a bit stale.

Denver doesn't really have a lot of different gameplans due to their limited personnel, but they have to ability to execute their offense a lot better than what we've seen in game 2. Braun was hesitant, Murray seemed to force things a lot, and Jokic will have a low turnover game at some point I'd imagine.

Denver can't really limit the quality looks OKC will get throughout this series, and OKC gives up wide open corner threes themselves. May sound simple, but this series may actually come down to role players hitting their open threes.

Do I trust the Thunder more when it comes to that? Yeah. Is shooting variance a b*tch? Also correct.

Either way, I expect OKC to at least regain the HCA after Sunday evening.

[GiannisAnte34]

Probably 2-2 going back to OKC game 5

[bisme37]

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