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

[QPR]

Are we pretending these guys don't massively benefit from playing with Jokic or something?

[threethehardway]

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

Yes because NBA fans are a special group that genuinely believes the last 3 minutes of a game is more important than the first 45 minutes.

And the first 82 games aren't a foreshadowing of the last 16 games.

So whenever something happens, it doesn't happen in context of previous trends or events, it's brand new.

NBA fans are the worst. Lol.

[DusterBuster]

Somebody else for OKC needs to step up. It's nice that Caruso hit those threes but he's only a bailout option. DEN has figured out a coverage on SGA that's working to slow him but will leave somebody open on the swing. Those single coverages and open shots need to be conversions.



Strangely, if the Knicks make it I think we match up MUCH better with DEN than OKC does. I do NOT like our matchup with OKC.

With all due respect, you know I got you and love this era of Knicks, I don’t think they or anyone from the East can hang with the top of the west this year. Lot will depend on injuries tho. If OKC gets past this round, I don’t see anyone stopping them. If it’s Denver, it’ll be a little more competitive, but the Knicks problem with Nuggets is they have no solutions for Jokic who’s better than everyone they have. Knicks are more complete of a team, but I think Jokic is a tipping point player that can override it. I also feel like the series with Boston probably goes 6… then I think a NYK/IND series (if that happens.. likely) is gonna be a meat grinder series.

Whoever comes out of OKC / DEN should probably make quick work of MIN or GSW. Warriors too hobbled and Minny just isn’t deep enough against either of DEN vs OKC.

I do think you’re right that Knicks and Den is more competitive, but just don’t see Knicks winning it if it gets that far. Still have a hard time not seeing the Thunder winning it all this year tbh… why I said I think this is the real Finals.

We basically have the same setup that OKC is using against Jokic and that Minny used last year. Actually, it's almost exactly the same as Minny because we actually have Towns, who matches Jokic in strength, and Mitch plays the Gobert role. We're bigger than OKC.

I don't like how we'd match up with OKC one bit. They're too long and we're not big enough _offensively_ to punish them.

I still don’t see how NYK or anyone from the East can battle past Jokic tbh.

[DusterBuster]

I'
The Nuggets beating a 68 win Thunder team is more believable than Id want to think. This season has been weird, you have #2 seed that didn't have a functional offense in the playoffs and a #3 seed that needed superhuman performance from 40 year old Bron to beat an Ant/Randle iso offense.

Would it be that crazy for the Nuggets to beat them? Well yes beating a 68 win team is nuts but I just have a feeling one of the Boston, OKC, Cleveland is going to lose and I don't know which...the Thunder has to be the better of the three but probably is playing the most dangerous of the three opponents (NY, Indy, Denver).

The NBA has changed. Regular season has never mattered less.

[TinmanZBoy]

the style OKC is playing is physically demanding

[Revived]

You know Jokic is an all time great when there’s two threads created to hate on him within seconds of each other with nearly the same exact title.

[Wolfgang630]

the style OKC is playing is physically demanding

And to keep that pace in the playoffs and doing it in Denver. Gonna get tired. If they don’t blow the nuggets out it’s not a good position for them having to drag it out.

[ChuckChilly]

You are supposed to look at it over the a large sample size. He has less help than other superstars. This is just true.

That's just false!

He won a championship with this same core lmao

Stop making excuses for the best player in the world.

Why did they lose last year then if his "core" was so great? You must have forgot when Murray and Jokic were scoring like 80% of the Nuggets points in that Minnesota series.

[DaFan334]

The NBA should realize how bad SGA winning MVP is gonna be...sorry OKC fans.... but this wont age well...

[Ssj16]

The problem with this world is that people think I'm absolutes and think multiple things can't be true.

Jokic got the right amount of help in game 3 but his help has been inconsistent when you compare to other legends and their number 2 and 3. This isn't an either or situation.

[Mrakar]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Man they get away with lot of things. Are they too quick for refs or what?

[bkkrh]

Tonight his championship supporting cast carried him to a victory playing one of his worst games of his career. Enough about how Jokic doesn't have a supporting cast. He literally won a championship with this same core. Tonight the supporting cast bailed him out.

Aaron Gordon is the new Robert Horry!

Shout-out to the Nuggets championship supporting cast.

This is from last season:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1cnyyr9/since_1984_nikola_jokic_is_the_only_mvp_without/



What I recently did out of interest, I generally checked Championship teams. You have to go back to the 77-78 Washington Bullets to find another team that had just one player on their roster that received any kind of league recognition the same season they won the title. Every other champion had at least another player getting some 6th Man of the year votes, like the 93-94 Rockets, most of them had multiple players that were All Stars, All NBA players, 6th men and so on.

In comparsion, Jokic did not have a single player on his roster that received ANY kind of league recognition in the last 4 seasons and never played with a player that received a higher league recognition than placing 4th in 6th man of the year and 5th in Rookie of the year in his whole career until now.

What I always find especially funny is how there is this constant talk about how great players make their team mates better and I can't think of any player where it is more the case than with Jokic. Players that were kinda underwhelming on their previous teams suddenly look awesome and players that leave are somehow are playing worse on their new team.

[Alatan]

SGA walking off the court with a huge smile. He knows that the Thunder should be up 3-0 in this series.

3-0 in moral victories?

[Rubios]

Jokic has had two meh games in a row.
But MAYBE having two men over him even when he's off ball and up to three the moment he catches it has something to do with his mates performing better...

[TinmanZBoy]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Man they get away with lot of things. Are they too quick for refs or what?

They might be… they are handsy all the time, also very quick

[dhsilv2]

No we're not. But having a great game doesn't mean you're great players. We shouldn't change our minds about who these guys are because they had a great game.

But lets remember, he doesn't have Pippen and Grant, doesn't have Kobe or Wade, he doesn't have Pierce and Ray Allen, he doesn't have Dray and Klay, or so on. He had Godron and Murray...they're solid contributors who can have big games.

Yeah but your comments are clearly downplaying them. You didn't even say anything about how great they were tonight in that post!

And I still think you underrate AG and Jamal, and Jamal gets the most underrated. He's a great scorer, and is a ball handler who puts pressure on the defense, something that I think is especially important against the best defenses like OKC.

Murray career playoffs 56.8 TS% 23.9 PPG 6.1 AST
50pt games: 2
40pt games: 4
30pt games: 13

Thompson career playoffs 55.5 TS% 19.2 PPG 2.2 AST (defensive edge of course, but Jamal ain't bad)
50pt games: 0
40pt games: 1
30pt games: 16

Now, would I take Dray and Klay over Jamal/AG? Absolutely, most people would. But I don't think those two are as far off as a lot think. This playoffs AG has hit so many big shots while playing great defense... the carry like a Jokic needs guys who can be clutch because their presence alone can keep it close, and I think everyone knows Jamal and AG are clutch at this point. That's what's fun about the Nuggets, they always seem like they are in it because if you just keep it close they have a great chance of finding a way as a team.

Just watching them over the past few years, I think the Nuggets have a good core. The might not be able to win this year, but I don't think they need that much to win another chip. I just hope for their sake they don't panic in the off-season if they come up short.

Why would I bring up tonights game? I go out of my way to avoid knee jerk bad posts like that, not that I'm perfect.

Murray you're over here saying isn't a bad defender. Yes, he's an actual bad defensive player overall. He consistently is somewhere in the 40th percentile among defenders when we look at RAPM based metrics. For a starter that's bad. When his jumper isn't falling Murray is an extremely low impact player. He doesn't have the ability to impact the game outside of his shooting.

AG is great, I'm not sure what more I can say there. But he's no star. He's not a PDOY level guy.

[OverAndOut]

The NBA should realize how bad SGA winning MVP is gonna be...sorry OKC fans.... but this wont age well...

Interesting that Jokic’s championship came in the season he was robbed by Embiid.

[EmpireFalls]

Gordon and Murray are really damn good.

[picc]

I just watched the game and Braun had SGA on code 5 lockdown all night. Absolutely none of his shenanigans worked. Wow.

[zimpy27]

Jokic has Murray-MPJ-Gordon

It's a great set of starters. Murray and Gordon are all Star level though they haven't made a team yet.

Main problem with the Jokic teammates here has been their health issues.