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

[WestbrookGOATed]

Nuggets can steal game 5 and end this in 6. It’s that simple

But you know it's not going to happen.

[levon]

Lebron generally makes the right read in these situations. He is usually blasted for not taking the last shot

Nah I watch every LeBron game and even he started forcing those "dagger" jumpers late in games when up during the 2nd half of his career.

That's been largely attributed to age and fatigue though. Shai is 26. Everybody clowns Luka for being out of shape, but look how many ill-advised long jumpers Shai and Joker shot today

[Jeremy Lin 7]

Denver playing with 4.5 NBA players (MPJ injured) and the series is tied 2-2

It's going to be a miracle if they win this series

[G R E Y]

Nuggs 26-36FTs in a 5-point game.

That 72.2% at the line is even worse than their 23rd ranked 77% in the regular season.

Poor results for a contender.

[Castle Black]

Nuggets can steal game 5 and end this in 6. It’s that simple

Denver is going to get blown out in Game 5. They won't win another game in OKC. This series is over.

[Deathray]

Both teams were exhausted by the end. Great job by the NBA having them play late Friday then early today, especially considering the last game went to OT.

[Ugly0598]

Denver only put up 87 points. Kind of a joke. At least they won in 2023.

[California Gold]

Jokic needs to work on his stamina a bit.

[CIN-C-STAR]

SGA is a fake superstar, he aint sh*t without a favourable whistle but I did not expect this from Jokic... quite disappointed in his performance.

If he's a fake superstar, Jokic is one too.

Okc isn't winning it all.

My biggest takeaway from these playoffs is that this current era is full of dumb basketball. I haven't seen anyone play a game where I was like "That is a championship team"

All of these teams are playing awful basketball and either relying on the refs or chucking 3s and praying for the math to save them.

And for all of the "Dynasty Warriors shot 3s!" arguments they also hit the paint, and had mid range scorers like Livingston and Barbossa attacking the lane.

Outside of Steph and KD and Klay, who were otherworldly shooters, Warriors are very deliberate about how they generate 3s.
You generally don’t see the chucking like other teams.
I agree with you the bball IQ in the NBA is the lowest in decades. Playbooks have shrunk and the over reliance on “talent” has really set these teams up to fail in the playoffs.
Those quick reads and simple actions in transition players rely on really dry up in the playoffs, and then half the guys don’t know what to do and continue to chuck and rely on their “skill” rather than knowing ho to problem solve.
I think that’s why we are seeing such proliferation of zone defenses. Should be easy to figure out but these guys have no clue. It’s so much iso and two-man game, which doesn’t work against zone.

[Kawaii Leonard]

The fact that this is series is tied is an indictment on the Thunder. Denver isnt a Championship caliber team this year. They sacked their coach days before the playoffs started.

Denver has multiple players that have won a championship. Their bench sucks but their starting 5 the same from 2 years ago. The Nuggets new coach has been with them since 2017, it's not like he's some random guy with no coaching experience.

The Thunder based on the number's are a historically great team, and they have playoff experience as well. look at the depth between the two teams, this shouldnt be close.

One team has a whole core of Championship experience, the other team has Caruso. Wdym?

[Optms]

Okc won but fans should be pissed at the blatant attempted rigging for Denver, wow

[Dadouv47]

Cason Wallace is the most underrated Thunder player.

Hope Shai can bounce back because we won't many games with him playing this poorly

[California Gold]

Denver playing with 4.5 NBA players (MPJ injured) and the series is tied 2-2

It's going to be a miracle if they win this series

Plz, every team is dealing with injuries this time of year. There's no excuses. Not all of OKC's injuries are advertised.

[TravisScott55]

Nuggets can steal game 5 and end this in 6. It’s that simple

This won't happen chief

[Mk0]

This series so far shows why LBJ is arguably the goat. Even though scoring is not his first and foremost strength, he always showed up in series like this. Modern and latest MVP candidates look like they are not in the same tier with guys like LBJ and MJ. Both Joker and SGA looks horrific. So next time while bashing LBJ, remember this series.

2011 NBA Finals

He thought we forgot

I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of posters were children when it happened. A 20 year old poster would have been 6!

[Bank Shot]

Nuggets can steal game 5 and end this in 6. It’s that simple

Denver is going to get blown out in Game 5. They won't win another game in OKC. This series is over.

I expect OKC to win game 5 comfortably, but I don't know how you can lock in a game 7 win given how shaky SGA and especially J Dub have looked at points this series.

[jokeboy86]

Jokic is definitely dropping down all time lists.

This is absolutely terrible.

He looks so bad and he's not injured or old. He's just SHOOK.

Yea it’s gonna be hard to forget this series in the all time rankings discussions. This just would never happen to Shaq. It would have never happened to Duncan either.

At the end of the day, Duncan would just put either one of those bigs on block and jump hook/drop step them to death.


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And his patented bank shot.

Duncan is higher on my list than Jokic.

Duncan so underrated.

If people were honest and not obsessed with “highlights” or “charisma”, the truth is Duncan is clearly the 2nd best player since Jordan retired and who knows maybe there’s a case to say he’s the best. The Kobe, Steph, KD, Jokic over Duncan conversations are absurd in my opinion

[TheAlchemist]

regardless of how this series finishes I'm disgusted by OKC's execution and coaching

really disappointing the way they lost a game up 14 with 5 minutes left, and a game where Jokic shot 5-21 in regulation

Why? A win is a win is a win.

This is a young team, clearly the only superstar is Shai. Next up is J Will and Chet maybe, but they're young af.

Jokic did years before he won. Aaron Gordon was Orlando's only future at one point. Murray has been an all-star since time.

Young teams need to learn how to win in the playoffs.

[Wolfgang630]

SGA is so overrated.

[Bank Shot]

Cason Wallace is the most underrated Thunder player.

Hope Shai can bounce back because we won't many games with him playing this poorly

Wallace was awesome for sure. It would have been extremely ballsy, but I was thinking the Thunder should close with him over J Dub.