Denver Nuggets cannot hold fourth quarter lead, fall to Oklahoma City Thunder

Despite a great effort and solid interior play, the Nuggets could not stop the Thunder in a 122-112 defeat in Oklahoma City. Both the inside and outside games showed up for the Thunder in the second half, proving to be too much for the undersized and undermanned Nuggets roster.

When/Where

Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015 at Chesapeake Energy Arena – Oklahoma City, OK

Flipping the Script

The most glaring statistic in the Nuggets’ loss to the San Antonio Spurs was the discrepancy in points scored off of turnovers. This was clearly an area of emphasis and it was great to see the team improve so drastically in just under 24 hours as they ended up scoring 24 points off of 14 Thunder turnovers, while giving up only 10 points on 10 of their own. If the Nuggets can continue this trend, I expect their record to significantly improve in 2016.

Live by the 3, Die by the 3

The good news is that the Nuggets made nine 3-pointers to only eight for the Thunder, but the bad news is that they took 25 from long range to only 15 for the Thunder. Oklahoma City is a very good 3-point shooting team, while Denver is certainly below average, so it’s very telling that they ended up shooting 10 more. The Nuggets looked like they made interior scoring a priority early in the first quarter and had a lot of success before settling for a number of threes late in the quarter and losing their edge. Here is the shot chart for the Nuggets from the first quarter and it paints a pretty clear picture of what the Nuggets need to focus on in order to run an effective offense.

No Traffic Zone

Neither team ran into much defense on the inside as they Nuggets and Thunder racked up 66 and 68 points in the paint, respectively. Oklahoma City was able to supplement those points with some solid jump shooting while the Nuggets just don’t have players on the roster that can consistently knock those shots down.

The pick-and-roll game proved successful at times for Denver again as Jameer Nelson found Joffrey Lauvergne a number of times for dunks, but the Thunder put on a clinic in the fourth quarter with nifty passing from their big guys to continue the parade of dunks.

Star of the Game

A number of different Nuggets provided sparks at various points in the game, including Will Barton, Lauvergne and Nelson, but Kenneth Faried had great energy throughout, grabbing offensive boards and hitting some nifty post shots as well. He ended up with 25 points and 11 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive end.

Play of the Game

There were plenty of highlights to choose from in tonight’s game, but I chose this 3-pointer by Gary Harris for the play of the game because it was the best example of spacing, player movement and ball movement that I’ve seen from the Nuggets in a long time. It’s also another example of Jokic’s high hoops IQ as he makes the extra pass without a moment of hesitation.

Turning Point

Enes Kanter slammed home a dunk despite a lot of contact by Nikola Jokic in the fourth quarter and claimed the paint for the Thunder. The Nuggets would make one more run to get close, but Kanter’s dominance inside was the story from that point on. Until Jusuf Nurkic gets back into the lineup, the Nuggets will continue to struggle against teams with legitimate NBA centers. Kanter finished with 21 points on 7-8 shooting and 8 rebounds in just 25 minutes.

Lasting Impact

The Nuggets will have a third consecutive crack at a Top 4 NBA team after a day off, so there’s still a chance to pick up some momentum going into 2016. The game in Portland to close out 2015 looked like a good chance at picking up a win to finish the year, but after their complete dismantling of the Cavs a couple nights ago, it may take a bit more work than expected.

Next up

Tuesday, Dec. 29th vs. Cleveland

The Denver Nuggets return to the Pepsi Center and face a Cavaliers team that will be looking for answers after beginning their road trip with consecutive losses to the Warriors and Trail Blazers. The Cavs face the Suns in Phoenix on Monday night so they will be coming to Denver on the second game of a back-to-back leaving them vulnerable to a rested Nuggets team looking for another signature win.