Oklahoma City Thunder @ Denver Nuggets 03/03/10

[slick_watts]

Russell Westbrook / Thabo Sefolosha / Kevin Durant / Jeff Green / Nenad Krstic

@




Chauncey Billups / Arron Afflalo / Carmelo Anthony / Kenyon Martin / Nene

Matchup

This game has serious playoff implications. If we win at Denver, we'll move within a game of the Jazz for second place and a game and a half of Denver for the division lead.

The problem, is that Denver KILLS US at home. While we trounced a Carmelo-less Nuggets team in January, beating them in their building is always tough. Chauncey Billups is putting up monster scoring numbers, the Nuggets are a killer three point shooting team, and our defense has been in disarray for the past week and a half or so.

Denver also has a good bench, even with Ty Lawson sitting this game out with a shoulder injury. Our bench is going to have to play well, James Harden is going to have to get back to playing well or we're in for some major trouble when the subs come in.

The good news? Carmelo's been in a bit of a funk, shooting ~40% in his last five games, Kevin Durant's been on fire, and Russell Westbrook should be able to dance around Chauncey Billups all night. This is a classic offense vs. defense matchup.. Denver is extremely vulnerable when they aren't hitting shots; if we play our smart, defensive game that we've been known for this season it might give us a shot to steal the game in the fourth quarter. If not, Denver will just steamroll us.

Some Numbers

Russell Westbrook's A:TO ratio is now 2.58:1, 3:1 since January 1st, and over 4:1 since February 1st.

A Question

Can our defense play at the level we need to take this game from Denver?

[Joel Embust]

I'm still not over that massive blowout loss to the Nuggets that set a few records back when the Thunder were still the Sonics.

We won the previous game, but that was at home and they were without Carmelo.

I expect a double digit loss.

[dream_catcher_9]

I think we get blown out, but I hope I'm wrong.

[Jimmy76]

close game

depends on whether harden shows up is my guess

[88' Draft Pick]

we not gettin alot of calls except durant. green and krystic both gettin hacked by nene. Ibaka needs to guard Nene. send his stuff into the stands

[88' Draft Pick]

we need some movement off the bench tonight. harden and maynor really need to get out of their funk for us to win

[OzThunder]

Argh. That was ugly. Lucky to be only 7 points down. Durant missing those free throws seem to have rattled him, and offense isn't really coming from any where else.

Lately i've been noticing that Maynor has almost become a liability on offense. He's not moving the ball well and never looks at the basket so no one bothers to guard him.

[slick_watts]

Pretty awful on both sides.. we got bailed out at the line or this would be a huge deficit already. Nuggets playing better in all facets, Durant looks like a flustered kid, commiting dumb turnovers. Offense grinds to a halt when Russell exists, Harden and Maynor again invisible.

We have to get better looks against this Denver team..

[Jimmy76]

i miss our old defense

[Clangus]

That was the worst sequence of Defense I have seen us play this year - from Down 7 to down 14 in a blink

@#$@

[Jimmy76]

[dream_catcher_9]

We are getting dominated in every facet of the game....

[88' Draft Pick]

ibaka's inexperience is really showing

[Clangus]

Beat down. Hopefully they can wake the Funk up!

[88' Draft Pick]

*double post*

[88' Draft Pick]

lucky to be down 9. hopefully we come out with more energy and the nuggets resort to shooting jumpers

[OzThunder]

How was that 4 minutes of open passes in for dunks....

mind blowing

we're lucky to be in this game at the half, we should be down 20. Hopefully we can go to some offense that works. Durant has to take a look at Anthony and face up in that elbow extended catch. At the moment he is staying back to the basket and waiting for a reach so he can blow by, but he has to face up, triple threat and see what the defense gives him (We should be going to Jeff Green for this kind of action 10 times a game).

Hopefully we can make some shots early and it will give us some energy on d, but at the moment we're scared of going to the ring and they're denying our catches on the perimeter, so we literally have nothing

[Clangus]

ergh

UGLY!

Melo dominating us, I can handle.

But Nene is butt F######G our bigs

[Jimmy76]

lets hope this is at least a wake up call

[88' Draft Pick]

just too much to handle on the second night of a back to back