2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West Semifinals: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #4 Denver Nuggets (DEN leads 2-1)

[AleksandarN]

The real Canadian MVP showed up tonight

[Patches Perry]

GG Nuggets fans. Your team obviously has a championship level aura that OKC is intimidated by. SGA played absolutely awful. Really impressive end of 4th and OT. See yall Sunday.

[Zeno]

Gordon saved Denver 3 times in last 10 PO games with clutch shots….I don’t remember even one from Draymond per whole his career….

Why bring Draymond into this? Can’t stand him but he been plenty instrumental to multiple championships. His defence in even now on another to most of the league.

[WhatTheBuck]

It's always the usual suspects with these threads

And the usual apologists too.

[HotRocks34]

Tough night for Buzzin.

[Mamba Mentality]

Hartenstein had no business missing those bunnies

Hard to make shots when you’re frozen out of the offense for three quarters.

[SlimShady83]

Does the board's opinion change on this after every game?

I see you're sort of new, they/we do this every game with every team and player

[___Rand___]

Kobe could get in the post at 17 years old. Kids these days have just the faceup.

Perhaps I'm biased due to my age, but I don't recall Michael Jordan ever playing as miserably as SGA played today.

Jordan pooped the bed in his first playoff game since returning from playing baseball.

8-22 19 points, 8 TOs

That was the whole "#45 isn't the same as #23" trash talk

But he kinda bounced back and won another 3 titles in a row

Jordan's focus in playoffs is like few or no other player. That's why he's a legend. His entire being has a single purpose and none other. Every cell is working to get that ball into the hoop.

[nazario]

It always surprises me how people don't understand that this is a team game and that great players don't win by themselves.

When people say Jokic has no help, they don't mean he's playing with a bunch of G-Leaguers.
They compare his supporting cast with that of the other contenders in the NBA and see that Denver has a relatively weaker supporting cast.

OKC got killed by Jokic in game one and adjusted afterwards, Denver subsequently adjusted to this and the 'supporting cast' did a great job. Gordon has been amazing all playoffs. All the all time greats have had playoff series where the supporting cast stepped up and won the game, whether it be Jordan, LeBron or anyone else.

"They compare his supporting cast with that of the other contenders in the NBA and see that Denver has a relatively weaker supporting cast."

Then compare his opponents to what has been met, historically, by other title contending teams - and you realize that it all evens out.

Gordon and Murray may very well be just ok in a historical sense, but the 20's has not seen contenders like the 10's Spurs, Rockets, Thunder, Cavs etc.

It evens out.

[Wingy]

I said it like 5 pages ago. I know OKC fans want to stick with their home grown team but you trade for Giannis and you own the league for the next 5 years.

The spacing would be horrible OKC would need a stretch 5 that can defend and those do not grow on trees.

I think they are better off sticking with this team. They have the age advantage so there is no need to panic

If they fail to get past the second round, with perhaps the best regular season of all time, it is absolutely time to panic. And I say this as someone who thinks people overreact way too often.

Sounds very prisoner of the moment.

I remember several years ago people calling for splitting up Brown and Tatum…they just couldn’t get it done. They were just young and needed more time. As does OKC if they fail to win it this season.

[KP Duty]

This game was frustrating...but good game nugs.

[Wolfgang630]

Must win game 4 for the nuggets. Your mindset is “we need to go for the kill and be up 3-1”. OKC mentally can’t comeback from that.

[PushDaRock]

When a guy like SGA is a possible league MVP, you know the league Is in bad shape.

Do you guys ever get tired of posting such incredibly stupid reactionary takes? Do you not feel at all embarrassed? You know this same guy had 34 points, missed two shots, and posted the highest single game plus-minus in playoff history just two days ago right?

This is what makes the league so great. That a young guy who had one of the greatest guard seasons in league history on a dominant 68 win team can still find himself experiencing some obstacles in the playoffs against a less talented team of experienced veterans. Maybe he’ll lose the series and it’ll prove to be a learning moment like it was for the countless other examples of MVPs who had struggles in the playoffs and then had dominant championship runs later (LeBron, Dirk, Curry, and Giannis just to name a few recent ones). Maybe he’ll have a monster Game 4 and you’ll shut up until the next night he has a bad shooting night.

Blah blah blah- regular season merchant. His skillset is laughable as an MVP candidate. Take away the favorable whistle and you got nothing left.

Take away 4 FTA's game that you deem as "favorable calls" and he's still averaging 29 ppg and a Superstar.

[ImmortalD24]

SGA is a good young player but the guy appears less athletic than post achilles injury Kobe. Can't get by his defender easily ala Donovan Mitchell. It'll be tough to score in the playoffs given his limitations. That said he does put up numbers.

[Castle Black]

Denver came through big but OKC blew that game. Like they blew Game 1.

Not a promising sign.

Yup. Denver had no business winning that game. Joker better find his stroke before Game 4 cause they won't get away with that again. OKC going to go with the same strategy of doubling him in the post and forcing their role players to continue to make shots, and it's the right strategy.

[Frank Dux]

Beautiful stuff from Gordon.

[HotRocks34]

Denver came through big but OKC blew that game. Like they blew Game 1.

Not a promising sign.

Yup. Denver had no business winning that game. Joker better find his stroke before Game 4 cause they won't get away with that again. OKC going to go with the same strategy of doubling him in the post and forcing their role players to continue to make shots, and it's the right strategy.

I agree on both points.

[Mk0]

Read on Twitter

Definitely getting Draymond Green vibes. How is he the one always getting away with such a clear fouls. He has like 2-3 a game minimum that are not even a question.

When he pulled down on MPJ's neck was filthy. Like wtf man?

[Upperclass]

OKC is the best team in the league at generating legitimate fouls.. they dont know what to do when those fouls arent being called. Denver played the Lakers in 2 out of the past 3 playoffs so they know exactly what to do when fouls arent being called

[Jta444]

That's just false!

He won a championship with this same core lmao

Stop making excuses for the best player in the world.

Not the same team. Lebron got jealous and scared of Jokic’s legacy so he took Bruce Brown first then KCP the next season. Brown CBA rules Lebron ironically lobbied for to prevent future superteams like his Heatles, then KCP by request since he was a Klutch client and asked him to go to Magic instead.

You people are obsessed with LeBron smh

It’s like Duncan getting jealous and scared of an upcoming Lebron so he makes Shane Battier sign elsewhere and prevent Ray Allen from joining the Heat. And so Duncan would have won 2013 too and Lebron would have been ringless in Miami. Same thing happening to Jokic now his team is being limited by Klutch.

Props to Duncan for being a real man and facing stacked teams of Lebron fairly without complaint, unlike other guys who stack their teams and prevent other teams from doing so.