Nuggets suffer another fourth-quarter collapse, fall to Thunder in overtime

 

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DENVER – After no-showing against the Utah Jazz Wednesday, the Denver Nuggets came out firing against the Oklahoma City Thunder but came up short, ultimately falling 132-129 in overtime.

Denver has lacked energy from their starting unit in the majority of their 15 games coming into tonight but came out of the gates with a sense of urgency on the offensive side of the ball in the first half. The Nuggets shot 53 percent front the field and made 10 of 12 free throws with a plethora of alley-oops and dunks mixed in.

Emmanuel Mudiay had one of his better first halves of the season and finished with a solid 17 points, five assists, and three rebounds while only surrendering one turnover. Jamal Murray continued his hot shooting and finished with his third 20 point game in a row with 20 points, seven rebounds, and two steals. The Nuggets entered halftime leading 63-62.

The second half for the Nuggets started almost identical to the first, with a multitude of dunks and infectious energy from all five starters. The Nuggets stayed on the throttle until Russell Westbrook came to life and single-handily brought the Thunder off the brink of a loss by scoring 19 points in the fourth quarter.

The Nuggets found themselves down by three with under 20 seconds remaining before Murray got fouled on a three-point attempt and hit all three free-throws. Kenneth Faried, who had 12 points and eight rebounds on the night, viciously rejected the last second lay-up attempt by Westbrook and the Nuggets forced overtime.

Overtime was the Wilson Chandler and Westbrook showdown as each carried their respective teams. The Nuggets were desperately searching for open looks to no avail but continued to play solid half-court defense. No lead went beyond three points in the overtime period but the Nuggets’ hopes were dashed when Chandler’s attempt to tie the game was rejected at the rim by Steven Adams, who finished with a meager seven points and five rebounds.

The foul game did not go the Nuggets way and Westbrook’s 36 points, 18 assists and 12 rebound were too much to overcome as the Nuggets fell to 6-10 on the season.

FOOTNOTES

Danilo Gallinari sat out for the second straight game with tightness in his right thigh.

Mike Miller (personal reasons was not with the team)

Juancho Hernangomez missed his first game due to a right ankle sprain.

Will Barton (personal reasons) was not with the team tonight.

WHERE/WHEN

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado | November 25, 2016 | Game No. 16

NUGGETS STAR OF THE GAME

Chandler continues being the Nuggets most valuable player and put up a line of 32 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and a block. Another great performance by the league’s leading bench scorer.

BY THE NUMBERS

QUOTE OF THE GAME

Michael Malone on Denver’s lack of defense:

“We didn’t defend them the whole night. They were well above 50 percent from the field all game and they shot 50 percent from the three point line. We talked about it at halftime, we talked about it in the third quarter and the forth quarter. The first team to get some defense into the game will probably win the game and we never did. To give up that many points on that kind of shooting; it was a shootout and we lost a shootout. That is my biggest disappointment tonight that we were never able to consistently get stops.”

PLAYS OF THE GAME

Faried with a big put-back slam.

There it is, Manimal!#Nuggets https://t.co/3MXrd2lPxD

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Chandler slams home an alley-oop off a Nelson pass and then Chandler sets up Faried for his own alley-oop slam.

Alley-oop once, slam on you. Alley-oop twice, slam on you… AGAIN!!

That's how it goes, right?#Nuggets https://t.co/o8r2GHwAWA

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Mudiay hits a three-pointer.

Moody for three, please.#Nuggets https://t.co/48AHOt69LI

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Another big Faried slam.

OH. MYYYYY.#ManimalStuff #Nuggets https://t.co/0BW1XWEoh1

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Nurkic feeds Chandler for another alley-oop.

More alley-oops?

More alley-oops!#Nuggets https://t.co/QDaRwM7OXs

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Great pass ahead from Mudiay to Chandler for the dunk in transition.

Do you even get two points if it's not a dunk?

Tonight, we wouldn't know… #Dunks #Nuggets https://t.co/G85jI9PN7y

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Gorgeous dime from Jokic leading to a great finish by Murray.

It's just so pretty.#Nuggets https://t.co/Ouml1udQL7

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Chandler with a clutch step-back jumper.

Step-back. Bang.#Nuggets https://t.co/qvHIijvgrB

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Murray with three clutch free-throws.

Three CLUTCH free throws from the Rookie!!!

Tied up with 8.3 on the clock. #Nuggets https://t.co/8qkB2P9CLn

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

Faried with the clutch rejection on Westbrook to send the game to overtime.

KENNETH FARIED!!!!!!!!#NoNoNo #Nuggets https://t.co/tQnL7ZlXxe

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 26, 2016

WHAT’S NEXT

The Nuggets travel to Phoenix to take on Eric Bledsoe and the Suns Sunday. The game starts early at 1:30 MST and will air on Altitude.