The Denver Nuggets Continue To Pull Wins Out Of Their Ass, This Time Taking Down SGA And The Thunder In Another Insane OT Thriller
I'm not sure what it is about these Denver Nuggets, but they can't stop playing absolute thrillers this season. We saw it in their series with the Clippers which included an OT thriller in Game 1 and the Aaron Gordon insane putback game winner on the road in Game 2. In this series with OKC, it's been more of the same. The insane Aaron Gordon game winner in Game 1, and now last night, the wild Game 2 OT thriller.
Sound familiar?
This game could best be described as two heavyweight fighters just throwing haymakers at each other for 3+ hours. At about midway through the 2nd quarter, neither team led by more than 5 points in a game that went to OT. That's pure NBA playoff crack right there. Every time one side tried to make a run, the other responded. Any time one side made a huge 3PM to maybe get a little separation, the other side found a way to recover. Every possession felt massive, every mistake was magnified, the refs were essentially allowing the players to kill each other in terms of contact, it was everything we all love about playoff basketball.
The craziest part? Both Jokic and SGA were horrendous. I'm talking about some of the worst shit you're ever going to see from either guy. A level of play that I personally did not know was even possible for each, and not in a good way
You would think that if these guys had those type of performances that their teams would be fucked, but that's also what made this game so incredible. It was about which set of "the others" would step up and make enough plays to carry their team to victory since the MVPs were completely bucketless. Given that OKC has arguably the best depth in the NBA and the Nuggets depth is talked about as being complete dogshit, the way things unfolded was legitimately shocking.
What we saw, was what championship experience can bring in a high leverage playoff game. In those moments, the team that doesn't get rattled and executes on both ends of the floor is the one that's going to survive, and time after time after time when the opportunity presented itself for the Nuggets "others" to make a play, they made a play
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Beyond massive buckets from Jamal Murray, both at the rim and in the midrange. MPJ is playing with 1 shoulder, can't even lift his arm and yet found a way to make gigantic 3PMs when the Nuggets desperately needed someone to knock down a shot to help them stay attached. Then Aaron Gordon, I mean, what else is there to say? He's done nothing but hit the biggest shots of the Nuggets' entire season. This time, it was that corner three to tie late in the 4th. I don't think people understand what AG has done to his jump shot this year. His hitting these 3s is not a fluke. This is not Orlando Magic Aaron Gordon or even early Denver Nuggets Aaron Gordon. This is a guy with a more than respectable jumpshot who now has all the confidence in the world. We're seeing what a lethal combination that can be.
And don't sleep on the defensive performance that Christian Braun put up against SGA as well. That was probably one of the best individual defensive performances on SGA that we've seen from an individual defender that we've seen all season. In 48 total possessions against SGA, Braun held him to just 8 points on 4-12 shooting while only allowing 2 FTA. Funny enough, Jamal Murray was also really good on SGA (1-7), but Braun is the guy for me. He was able to use his size, strength, and athleticism to stay with SGA and not let him get the advantage, and since refs aren't calling bailout fouls in the playoffs, SGA was in hell for a full 48 minutes.
I think if you asked any Nuggets fan how they thought a game in which Jokic was that bad going up against a healthy OKC team what they would think happened. Logic tells you that team loses by 40+. But that's the beauty of the NBA playoffs baby. Guys step up, things don't always go how you think, and on any given night you can see something truly special.
Now? They're in the driver's seat. I think we can assume that Nikola Jokic will never play like this again, so the Nuggets catching that prayer and still winning in his career worst stinker was huge.
For OKC, it's impossible to look past what SGA did in this game. In fact, he's been pretty awful in 5 of their 7 playoff games
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In a game where the Thunder needed the MVP to step up and come through, he shrank. Whether it was icing out his teammate in JDub in the 4th quarter despite him being the best Thunder player on the court all night
JDub was the guy who was making the huge shots all night, especially in the 4th quarter. He carried the Thunder with 16 huge points on 5-8 (2-4) shooting, and considering as a team they only scored 19 4th quarter points, one would think that when it came time to taking the biggest shot of the game that the ball would find a way into his hands.
Instead? SGA tried to foul bait his way to a win
SGA now falls to just 18% (2-11, 0-4) in the clutch this playoffs, which is the worst in the playoff field. Yes, even worse than Jayson Tatum, and he's missed every 4th quarter shot he's taken. Trying to foul bait in that moment instead of actually try and score is why SGA gets so much shit. Not only should the ball probably have been in JDub's hands to begin with, SGA trying to rely on the refs to bail him out in a game where they haven't been calling anything is just not winning playoff basketball. The Basketball Gods do not reward that kind of stuff.
When things went to OT, SGA disappeared. It was as if he wasn't even on the court
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What's tricky about that OT performance is SGA did do a great job of getting guys like iHart wide open push shots at the rim, which he's made at an 82% clip this season. In OT, those became airballs. He finished 0-3 in OT, which led the team in shots. Where things get tricky is while those are great shots, SGA is the MVP. Those should be SGA floaters. This is the moment he has to step up as the MVP and instead, he was praying someone else would save him. 0s across the board in OT? That's not good enough.
Add in the fact that he was smiling while walking off the court after the performance he had, and overall it was as brutal a night as you're going to ever see.
The good news is this series is nowhere close to being over. It's not like the Thunder should be panicking; they're a team that just won 68 games and blew the Nuggets out in Game 2. The same way Jokic won't play that poorly again, my guess is SGA won't either. Although, it's now more of a surprise when he plays well in a playoff game than throws up a stinker at this point, but this was a level of futility that is not exactly the norm. The reality though, is the Thunder are up against it. They either win 4 of the next 5 or their season is over and it's one of the biggest chokes in NBA history. A team this historic not even making the WCF? Disaster, and all I know is you do not want to fall down 3-1 against Nikola Jokic. You could make the case that whoever wins Game 4 wins the series, and now with momentum and the altitude on their side, the Nuggets have to feel great right now.
Given the fact that the Nuggets only play playoff thrillers, my guess is the rest of this series is going to continue to be must watch stuff. The Nuggets landed one of their haymakers in a big way, and now we see if the Thunder can get up off the mat and respond. Can't wait for Sunday.