Denver Nuggets in Oklahoma City to face pace imposer Russell Westbrook, Thunder

The Denver Nuggets play their second game in as many nights having lost to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday 101-86. The Oklahoma City Thunder have had a night to think about their disappointing loss to the Chicago Bulls on Christmas day, and are likely to come out firing. The Nuggets have to put the Spurs loss in the rearview mirror right away to keep things from getting out of hand early.

Denver Nuggets

The young Denver Nuggets frontcourt duo of Nikola Jokic and Joffrey Lauverge has developed nicely throughout the beginning of the season and they will need to continue that upward trend against the Thunder tonight. Teams with strong rim protection have given the Nuggets fits all year and Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams do just that for the Thunder. Unless Jokic and King Joffrey are able to have success inside early on, the Nuggets could revert into a team settling for jump shots. And jump shooting is not a recipe for success for these Nuggets, especially against a team so adept at getting the shots they want like the Thunder.

It took until the fourth quarter against the Spurs, but the Nuggets were finally able to find some success against the San Antonio beast of a center Boban Marjanovic by making him move his feet against Jokic running the pick-and-roll, which could work against the Thunder’s large, but also slow-footed Steven Adams.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The healthy start to the season for Thunder stars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant has led to to a return to the elite in the West for Oklahoma City, as they sit comfortably in third place behind the Warriors and Spurs. KD has stepped up his game defensively, and seems more determined than ever to make sure his presence is felt on both ends of the court. Westbrook continues to dominate his match-ups on a nightly basis as teams are forced to play at whatever pace he sees fit. The Thunder have surrounded their stars with shooters as well, making it difficult to provide any extra help to defenders matched up against either superstar. Derrick Rose gave a clue to the Bulls’ strategy that led to Chicago’s Christmas day victory over the Thunder.

“I think we did a really good job of making sure we closed out to 3-point shooters. We trusted the game plan. We know K.D. is a great 3-point shooter, Morrow, and Westbrook when his feet are set, and you just can’t let them get hot. Everybody else on the team, we forced them to make shots and make plays.”

Unfortunately, the Nuggets have not been very proficient at closing out on 3-point shooters this season, so it will be interesting to see if they’re able to follow the Bulls’ example tonight.

Nuggets injuries: Gallo (ankle), Mudiay (ankle) and Nurkic (patella tendon) are all out tonight.

Keys to the Game

• Per Derrick Rose: Close out on shooters! The Nuggets did a good job of this early in the Spurs game, but faded as the game went along.
• Attack the rim to get the Thunder big guys in foul trouble. If Adams goes out, Enes Kanter comes in and poses a different set of problems, but getting them into foul trouble can make all of those problems go away.
• Take care of the ball. The Thunder have a long, athletic starting five and will have no problem picking off any lazy passes, so the Nuggets will have to take care of the ball like they did in the 4th quarter against the Spurs when they only coughed up one turnover.
• Make some shots! If Adams, Kanter and Ibaka can avoid fouls, hitting some perimeter shots will help to open up the paint as well. This isn’t something that has happened in too many games this year, but something special will have to happen for the Nuggets to pull off an upset against a motivated Thunder team tonight.