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

[Dadouv47]

If OKC is unable to win close games they might (unlikely) get past Denver but then will lose against Minny or whoever they face in the Finals. Not being great late in games is one thing but being this bad offensively in clutch time is insurmountable

Depends if the more accurate narrative is the thunder are bad in close games or the nuggets are clutch in close games. I don't know.

I agree though Minny with Edwards and GS with Curry and Butler both have big time closers so it may be hard for the thunder to get to the finals if they even get out out of this round.

probably both but OKC had the same issue last year in the POs...also OKC had 0 basket in game one in the last 4 minutes and 2 basket in the last 8 minutes of regulation yesterday so it's fair to think that OKC is really bad at it.

[nbafan38]

If OKC is unable to win close games they might (unlikely) get past Denver but then will lose against Minny or whoever they face in the Finals. Not being great late in games is one thing but being this bad offensively in clutch time is insurmountable

Depends if the more accurate narrative is the thunder are bad in close games or the nuggets are clutch in close games. I don't know.

I agree though Minny with Edwards and GS with Curry and Butler both have big time closers so it may be hard for the thunder to get to the finals if they even get out out of this round.

probably both but OKC had the same issue last year in the POs...also OKC had 0 basket in game one in the last 4 minutes and 2 basket in the last 8 minutes of regulation yesterday so it's fair to think that OKC is really bad at it.

Dallas is also a very clutch closeout team with Kyrie and Luka but yes point taken about the inability to score late. The thunder will need to fix they are the team people think they are capable of being.

[Special_Puppy]

Gonna sign Jokic up to be #1000 if he has a stinker today

Read on Twitter

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Sorry Big Honey

[Mrakar]

Read on Twitter

Some1 really needs to whipe the floor with him once. He injured enough players already.

[MyTake_1]

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Some1 really needs to whipe the floor with him once. He injured enough players already.

That's what OKC fans call talent, man is despicable, he is a thug, he should not be in the NBA.

[MrPainfulTruth]

I’m not a Nuggets fan and have zero connection to Serbia or Colorado yet I think it’s funny how a guy like Jokic gets so many haters.

In my time watching basketball, him and Steph Curry are the two out of all the “elite/legendary players” who play basketball the right way, aren’t overly obnoxious and are genuinely likable players.

Are Nuggets fans super intolerable or something? Is that why people are waiting to see Jokic fail?

I see a few different groups hating on him. First, you have the LeBron stans who got extremely triggered since he was first mentioned in GOAT discussions (same happened as soon as people debated Curry > LBJ). There are guys on the game threads that didnt give a damn for either Clippers, OKC or nuggets but seem to spend their entire time now hating on Joker.
Then you have Embiid fans who have to see Jokic delivering all they hoped to get from their guy. And similarly lately Giannis fans who blame Jokic for pushing Giannis out of the general discussion. I dont think Jokic really gave anyone a reason for all that hate. Its just guys who are full of envy. They are mad they bet on the loser.

[MrPainfulTruth]

tomorrow is a new game but i am baffled by how people is blind to the fact that jokic is one of the worst starters of this series (imo only ahead of dort)

he's a turnover machine offensively and a huge liability on defense. if denver is not getting all the rebounds he's unplayable.

he's been a 100% carried by his teammates and the thunder's poor decision making down the stretch is helping

I think you are the worst poster of the entire OKC fan group. I wonder how other people of your own side think about posts like this one. Terrible take, full of hate and envy and lack of understanding what goes on on the court. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings. But since he is the worst player on the floor, OKC will probably lose with the strategy of triple teaming him. You must know something the entire coaching staff of your own club doesnt.

[MrPainfulTruth]

Would you guys say that Denver Nuggets have overachieved in this playoffs so far?

They absolutely have, they were outplayed in the 1st 6 games and kept it 3-3 against the Clils, and Thunder were better in every game and Nuggets are up 2-1, text book examlle for what it means to having the best player in the series being a swing factor.

Jokic’s been worse than SGA in the series, though.

18 assists to 21 turnovers for Jokic on bad defense

24 assists to 4 turnovers for SGA on good defense.

Jokic’s cast stepping up has been the difference for them

Nonsense. Jokic had a monster game by normal human measures (not for him, it was mediocre) where he clearly outplayed SGA.

Game 2 was an outlier, dominated by agenda driven officiating where Jokic got zero calls. If you hold the ball, get hacked and lose the ball, its a turnover. If you dont watch the actual game and just compare numbers you dont understand what went down.

Game 3 was terrible shooting wise. He still drew triple teams and opened spaces for his team mates. SGA had a terrible game all around too and he didnt contribute as much as Jokic did outside of shooting.

SGA has by far the better support around him. Murray and MPJ show up in one game out of five on average. Yesterday was one of those games. I posted in every game thread before the game: OKC has no chance to beat the Nuggets when these two show up plus Jokic. The reason they looked so bad most of the time is that both are very, very inconsistent.

MPJ shoots terribly most of the time and then loses confidence and completely stops shooting at which point he is useless, since his defense and rebounding are subpar.

Murray is even worse. He dominates the ball and makes extremely low IQ decisions. In a game like yesterday, his hail mary last second attempts after dribbling for 22.9 seconds on the same spot happen to fall. If you watched the Nuggets regularly you'd know this game is not what he brings most of the time. Sadly.

Overall they have a six man rotation. One of which is 49 year old Russell Westbrook.

The "others" won one game. The other was a combination of Jokic's monster numbers and Gordons clutch shot making. Where were MPJ, Murray in that game 1? Do you even remember if they played at all?

[Special_Puppy]

Over the past 6 games, Jokic has been playing like the Monstars stole his powers

[Dadouv47]

They absolutely have, they were outplayed in the 1st 6 games and kept it 3-3 against the Clils, and Thunder were better in every game and Nuggets are up 2-1, text book examlle for what it means to having the best player in the series being a swing factor.

Jokic’s been worse than SGA in the series, though.

18 assists to 21 turnovers for Jokic on bad defense

24 assists to 4 turnovers for SGA on good defense.

Jokic’s cast stepping up has been the difference for them

Nonsense. Jokic had a monster game by normal human measures (not for him, it was mediocre) where he clearly outplayed SGA.

Game 2 was an outlier, dominated by agenda driven officiating where Jokic got zero calls. If you hold the ball, get hacked and lose the ball, its a turnover. If you dont watch the actual game and just compare numbers you dont understand what went down.

Game 3 was terrible shooting wise. He still drew triple teams and opened spaces for his team mates. SGA had a terrible game all around too and he didnt contribute as much as Jokic did outside of shooting.

SGA has by far the better support around him. Murray and MPJ show up in one game out of five on average. Yesterday was one of those games. I posted in every game thread before the game: OKC has no chance to beat the Nuggets when these two show up plus Jokic. The reason they looked so bad most of the time is that both are very, very inconsistent.

MPJ shoots terribly most of the time and then loses confidence and completely stops shooting at which point he is useless, since his defense and rebounding are subpar.

Murray is even worse. He dominates the ball and makes extremely low IQ decisions. In a game like yesterday, his hail mary last second attempts after dribbling for 22.9 seconds on the same spot happen to fall. If you watched the Nuggets regularly you'd know this game is not what he brings most of the time. Sadly.

Overall they have a six man rotation. One of which is 49 year old Russell Westbrook.

The "others" won one game. The other was a combination of Jokic's monster numbers and Gordons clutch shot making. Where were MPJ, Murray in that game 1? Do you even remember if they played at all?

how so? I would take Murray/Gordon/Braun over Chet/JDub/Dort (not long term but in a playoff series in 2025). It's not close how better the Denver starters are offensively. Defense and depth is another story but Shai is almost our entire offense and that's why we lost yesterday because he was terrible.

Jokic is the best player in the world there's no discussion about that but this supporting cast talk is weird to me when u have amazing players like Murray and Gordon around you.

Murray and Gordon are playing elite basketball since the Clippers series. JDub had ONE good game against Denver and Chet at this point of his career is mainly an elite defensive player. I'm pissed at Shai but this supporting cast talk from casual fans that are watching at best 5-6 OKC games all season is so weird.

[MrPainfulTruth]

Over the past 6 games, Jokic has been playing like the Monstars stole his powers

What did he do in game 1? Do you remember? That was two games ago.

Clippers game (Points, Assists, Rebounds, Blocks, Steals, TO, +/-)
1 W 29-9-12-1-3-2 +10
2 L 26-10-11--0-3-7 +-0
3 L 23-13-13-0-1-2 -20 (34 pt Blowout game)
4 W 36-8-21-1-2-2 +4
5 W 13-12-10-2-1-2 +18
6 L 25-8-7-3-1-4 +1
7 W 16-8-10-1-3-5 +16
OKC
1 W 42-6-22-2-1-7 +10
2 L 17-6-8-1-1-6 -36 (Blowout game)
3 W 20-6-16-2-2-8-5 +5

In all games, in both series, he was double and mostly triple teamed as soon as he put the ball on the floor. Its very hard to generate a lot when three people are trying to rip the ball away from you.

The Jokic hate has to stop at some point. Its getting ridiculous, as if this data wasnt available to everyone.

[MrPainfulTruth]

Jokic’s been worse than SGA in the series, though.

18 assists to 21 turnovers for Jokic on bad defense

24 assists to 4 turnovers for SGA on good defense.

Jokic’s cast stepping up has been the difference for them

Nonsense. Jokic had a monster game by normal human measures (not for him, it was mediocre) where he clearly outplayed SGA.

Game 2 was an outlier, dominated by agenda driven officiating where Jokic got zero calls. If you hold the ball, get hacked and lose the ball, its a turnover. If you dont watch the actual game and just compare numbers you dont understand what went down.

Game 3 was terrible shooting wise. He still drew triple teams and opened spaces for his team mates. SGA had a terrible game all around too and he didnt contribute as much as Jokic did outside of shooting.

SGA has by far the better support around him. Murray and MPJ show up in one game out of five on average. Yesterday was one of those games. I posted in every game thread before the game: OKC has no chance to beat the Nuggets when these two show up plus Jokic. The reason they looked so bad most of the time is that both are very, very inconsistent.

MPJ shoots terribly most of the time and then loses confidence and completely stops shooting at which point he is useless, since his defense and rebounding are subpar.

Murray is even worse. He dominates the ball and makes extremely low IQ decisions. In a game like yesterday, his hail mary last second attempts after dribbling for 22.9 seconds on the same spot happen to fall. If you watched the Nuggets regularly you'd know this game is not what he brings most of the time. Sadly.

Overall they have a six man rotation. One of which is 49 year old Russell Westbrook.

The "others" won one game. The other was a combination of Jokic's monster numbers and Gordons clutch shot making. Where were MPJ, Murray in that game 1? Do you even remember if they played at all?

how so? I would take Murray/Gordon/Braun over Chet/JDub/Dort (not long term but in a playoff series in 2025). It's not close how better the Denver starters are offensively. Defense and depth is another story but Shai is almost our entire offense and that's why we lost yesterday because he was terrible.

Jokic is the best player in the world there's no discussion about that but this supporting cast talk is weird to me when u have amazing players like Murray and Gordon around you.

Murray and Gordon are playing elite basketball since the Clippers series. JDub had ONE good game against Denver and Chet at this point of his career is mainly an elite defensive player. I'm pissed at Shai but this supporting cast talk from casual fans that are watching at best 5-6 OKC games all season is so weird.

If you would take Murray over any OKC player then you simply havent seen him play a lot. Braun plays with a lot of heart but he hasnt done much in the post season. He is also very young and will become much better. Not sure what you see in him today.

I dont know who the best guys are around SGA: it just seems like theres a never ending supply of playoffs ready guys who play extremely good defense and hit open threes. How deep is the rotation? How bad is the dropoff when SGA goes to the bench? How many minutes does he have to play to keep the OKC afloat, compared to Jokic?

The Nuggets fans have discussed who is actual, reliable help for Jokic. The answer is simple - its Gordon who shows up every game, and omst of the time Westbrook. Everyone else is just randomly playing good at times, but mostly terrible. The two max palyers MPJ and Murray have been underwhelming for a very long time. Dont get fooled by a one game sample size.

[California Gold]

Okc is getting tested in these close games where they don’t have much experience. They will need to win some if they want to win a ring. It may not matter for this series but the next one or the finals may be where it bites them.

All those regular season blowouts only help you so much.

They don't look ready. They were shook late.

Right now they're looking like front running regular season champs that aren't quite prepared for prime time. Dallas 2007.

There's still time to fix it but tonight was ugly.

They'll need a game that they win in late game execution in this series. Not sure if it'll be game 4 or game 5 or a potential game 7. But something's gotta give. They had a close game come back against the Grizzlies but the Grizzlies weren't honestly all that great. Denver and GSW especially both have experience having won before to understand how valuable those late possessions are.

They went ahead from Williams late, I'm not sure why. He had it going. SGA didn't.

[MarcusBrody]

Jokic played poorly by his standards last night, no doubt. His shooting was totally off. He made a number of bad turnovers.

But at the same time, he found ways to contribute to the win. He rebounded, played good defense. He had 9 screen assists (for 21 points). Like rebounding and defense, screening is a way to help the team through effort, focus, and putting your body out there to free up your teammates even when your game is off. Jokic is both one of the best and most willing screener out there. That type of contribution is one reason Jokic is so consistently impactful.

[Dadouv47]

Nonsense. Jokic had a monster game by normal human measures (not for him, it was mediocre) where he clearly outplayed SGA.

Game 2 was an outlier, dominated by agenda driven officiating where Jokic got zero calls. If you hold the ball, get hacked and lose the ball, its a turnover. If you dont watch the actual game and just compare numbers you dont understand what went down.

Game 3 was terrible shooting wise. He still drew triple teams and opened spaces for his team mates. SGA had a terrible game all around too and he didnt contribute as much as Jokic did outside of shooting.

SGA has by far the better support around him. Murray and MPJ show up in one game out of five on average. Yesterday was one of those games. I posted in every game thread before the game: OKC has no chance to beat the Nuggets when these two show up plus Jokic. The reason they looked so bad most of the time is that both are very, very inconsistent.

MPJ shoots terribly most of the time and then loses confidence and completely stops shooting at which point he is useless, since his defense and rebounding are subpar.

Murray is even worse. He dominates the ball and makes extremely low IQ decisions. In a game like yesterday, his hail mary last second attempts after dribbling for 22.9 seconds on the same spot happen to fall. If you watched the Nuggets regularly you'd know this game is not what he brings most of the time. Sadly.

Overall they have a six man rotation. One of which is 49 year old Russell Westbrook.

The "others" won one game. The other was a combination of Jokic's monster numbers and Gordons clutch shot making. Where were MPJ, Murray in that game 1? Do you even remember if they played at all?

how so? I would take Murray/Gordon/Braun over Chet/JDub/Dort (not long term but in a playoff series in 2025). It's not close how better the Denver starters are offensively. Defense and depth is another story but Shai is almost our entire offense and that's why we lost yesterday because he was terrible.

Jokic is the best player in the world there's no discussion about that but this supporting cast talk is weird to me when u have amazing players like Murray and Gordon around you.

Murray and Gordon are playing elite basketball since the Clippers series. JDub had ONE good game against Denver and Chet at this point of his career is mainly an elite defensive player. I'm pissed at Shai but this supporting cast talk from casual fans that are watching at best 5-6 OKC games all season is so weird.

If you would take Murray over any OKC player then you simply havent seen him play a lot. Braun plays with a lot of heart but he hasnt done much in the post season. He is also very young and will become much better. Not sure what you see in him today.

I dont know who the best guys are around SGA: it just seems like theres a never ending supply of playoffs ready guys who play extremely good defense and hit open threes. How deep is the rotation? How bad is the dropoff when SGA goes to the bench? How many minutes does he have to play to keep the OKC afloat, compared to Jokic?

The Nuggets fans have discussed who is actual, reliable help for Jokic. The answer is simple - its Gordon who shows up every game, and omst of the time Westbrook. Everyone else is just randomly playing good at times, but mostly terrible. The two max palyers MPJ and Murray have been underwhelming for a very long time. Dont get fooled by a one game sample size.

well probably neutral fans don't know anything about the Nuggets but they are almost all admiring how well Murray is playing in those playoffs.

Who's hitting open 3's in OKC? we shot well in game 2 and that's it. 22% if I'm not mistaken yesterday and not much more than 30% in game one.

Who can create his own shot as well as Murray? Who is as reliable as Aaron Gordon from three? So far nobody in OKC.

We basically had two great performances (game 1 against Memphis and game 2 against you guys) and the rest has been pure garbage.

You are correct about the defensive stuff and our depth on that end but we still need guys to score in order to make a deep run in the POs.

[HMFFL]

All the focus on Jokic when these OKC players shot poorly.

SGA 31%
Chet 36%
Hartenstein 35%
Dort 16%
Caruso 22%

Keep focusing on Jokic and his team that has a 2-1 lead on the "unstoppable" OKC team.

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using RealGM mobile app

[bbms]

tomorrow is a new game but i am baffled by how people is blind to the fact that jokic is one of the worst starters of this series (imo only ahead of dort)

he's a turnover machine offensively and a huge liability on defense. if denver is not getting all the rebounds he's unplayable.

he's been a 100% carried by his teammates and the thunder's poor decision making down the stretch is helping

I think you are the worst poster of the entire OKC fan group. I wonder how other people of your own side think about posts like this one. Terrible take, full of hate and envy and lack of understanding what goes on on the court. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings. But since he is the worst player on the floor, OKC will probably lose with the strategy of triple teaming him. You must know something the entire coaching staff of your own club doesnt.

of course jokic is a fantastic player. he's just having a terrible series.

my point is directed towards the discourse of jokic vs okc. jokic is winning vs okc. what happens to jokic's legacy if he wins vs okc.

jokic is not the only player being schemed on. and he's not been a turnover machine only on triple team halfcourt sets. and okc had tripled so many less talented offensive players, you clearly don't know much of what's going on.

but i give you the pass since you have myopic reading comprehension, and wants to defend your pop diva. and i care very little about your opinion on me.

my problem isn't with jokic. even a creme de la creme basketball talent like him can have a bad series, or even season. my problem is the adaptation of pop diva culture into basketball. hate "player's fans".

btw jokic just said almost the same thing i did in his post game conference. complain with him

[Ugly0598]

Denver basketball fans are a bunch of rubbish. I think it will be great if they can win, but many of the people in Nuggets Nation aren’t even fans of the team at all, it has been outsiders following the team.

[Sharkboy242]

Denver basketball fans are a bunch of rubbish. I think it will be great if they can win, but many of the people in Nuggets Nation aren’t even fans of the team at all, it has been outsiders following the team.

There’s a lot of loyal Nuggeteers like cjx and I

[Handlez]

Jokic with terrible game by his standard and they still win.

May be bad news for OKC.