Why the Nuggets' regular-season dominance over the Thunder can translate to the playoffs

How many NBA players play with more confidence than Jamal Murray? It’s a short list.

That confidence was oozing out of Murray’s pores Friday in Oklahoma City where the point guard with the quickest heat check in the league lit the Thunder up for a cool 27 points on just 20 shots and swished a 28-foot dagger with 1:46 remaining in regulation that immediately quelled any concern about the Nuggets’ offensive prowess after three-straight games where Denver had failed to score 100 points.

The Nuggets’ starting point guard is averaging 22 points per game against the Thunder this season, and whenever he matches up across from Russell Westbrook he has the look in his eye like he’s going for 40. It’s not just Murray who plays with unrivaled confidence against Oklahoma City either. His teammates have that fearless look in their eyes too.

The Nuggets outplayed, outclassed and outexecuted the Thunder again, sweeping their season series with Oklahoma City in style. Games against Westbrook and Paul George have been known to produce thrillers, like when Westbrook set the record for most triple-doubles in a season, hit the game-winning three and eliminated the Nuggets from the playoffs in 2016, or last season when Gary Harris drilled the defining shot of the Michael Malone era, a buzzer-beating three from the right wing to beat the Thunder on national television. This latest win over Oklahoma City didn’t come with that level of theatrics, but it was still significant.

For a fourth consecutive meeting, the Thunder couldn’t find any resemblance of an offensive rhythm against the Nuggets. Oklahoma City hasn’t shot 50 percent from the field once against Denver this season and the Thunder are shooting just 28 percent from three-point range against the Nuggets this year. Paul George, an MVP candidate at times this season, is shooting only 41 percent against Denver across four matchups, a surprisingly low conversion rate considering smooth scoring wings like George are exactly the types of players that the Nuggets struggle to stop. Westbrook, who spent parts of Friday’s matchup jawing with Denver’s bench, is also shooting a paltry 41 percent versus the Nuggets this season.

The Thunder aren’t a blow-your-doors off offense. They earn their game checks on the defensive end of the floor. But Oklahoma City’s fourth-ranked defense hasn’t been able to hold the Nuggets down this season either.

Denver has scored at least 100 points in all four matchups against Oklahoma City this season and Nikola Jokic, who finished with 23 points on 10-16 shooting and 16 rebounds, had his way with Thunder big man Steven Adams again. Jokic is averaging 25 points per game versus the Thunder this season. He scored seven of his 10 baskets Friday in the paint, rope-a-doping Adams throughout the evening as he propelled Denver past Oklahoma City for a sixth-straight time. The Nuggets’ only loss to the Thunder over the last two seasons came without Paul Millsap and while Jokic was working his way back from an ankle injury.

As the Thunder continue to trend downward, all the way to the eighth spot in the West after the loss, the Nuggets are keeping pace with the Warriors’ atop the conference. And as the regular season dwindles to a close, the Nuggets and Thunder look more and more like potential first-round playoff foes. It’s a series that the Nuggets should welcome, especially if George’s shoulder injury continues to linger. Not because they’d ease past Westbrook, George and Adams, who haven’t won a playoff series since Kevin Durant ditched them for Golden State, but because in the NBA, confidence is key.

Venture inside the Nuggets’ locker room and there are players who will tell you with a straight face that they believe that Denver can win a championship this season. Jokic even uttered the C-word (championship) in a postgame interview earlier this month. Maybe for this young group without loads of playoff experience outside of Paul Millsap, Mason Plumlee and Isaiah Thomas are too bullish to succumb to the typical playoff pressures that haunt young teams making their inaugural postseason voyage.

Against the Thunder, the Nuggets play with the confidence and poise of a team that can make a playoff run. They always operate at a frenetic but controlled pace against Oklahoma City and did it again Friday on the second night of a back-to-back no less. Denver looked shell-shocked for much of its loss Thursday in Houston, but the Nuggets’ played with a brashness like they were coming off a blowout win, not a humbling defeat. The Nuggets always seem to rise to the occasion against Oklahoma City and their two wins over the Thunder this year have come on the road with no rest. Maybe this performance shouldn’t have come as a shock considering the Nuggets are a league-best 10-1 on the second night of back-to-backs this season. Unfortunately for Denver, there aren’t any back-to-backs in the playoffs.

Still, the Thunder with Westbrook, George, and Adams bring playoff experience and at least on paper a long and athletic defense which could be the benefactor of a playoff schedule that allows teams to game plan in greater detail for their upcoming opponent than they do throughout the regular season. Denver sweeping the Oklahoma City doesn’t mean that the Nuggets will have their way with the Thunder in the first round, or that a matchup with their Northwest Division foe is one they will even be favored in.

But if the two teams do meet in April, you can bet the Nuggets’ confidence will be through the roof.

That might be all that matters.