Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images
George Karl got his wish. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook most definitely did not combine for 72 points in this game. Far from it, in fact.
Don’t think he’s going to call it a success though.
Despite holding Oklahoma City’s dynamite tandem to just 44 points, the Nuggets still lost 106-89. Reason being? There are, in fact, eight other players on the team that can, in fact, do things. James Harden led the way with 18 off the bench, Serge Ibaka had 12, Nick Collison 10 and Daequan Cook six. In Game 1, Durant and Westbrook scored 67 of the Thudner’s total points. Tonight, just 41 percent.
It’s pretty clear to me that when Durant and Westbrook play really well, the Thunder are good. When two, even just one, other players show up, the Thunder are really good. One reason being, Oklahoma City is playing some defense. Other than the first six minutes of Game 1, the Thunder’s defense has been good. Tonight, it was terrific. The Nuggets shot just 39.1 percent from the field and scored only 89 points. We’re talking about the top one or two offense in the league here. And not only did the Thunder defend, but check the glass: 54-31 in favor of OKC. With 17 offensive boards.
Durant and Westbrook are going to give you something solid every night. And for the most part, that defense is going to be there too. But when you add in a third, fourth and fifth scorer to things, how can you beat the Thunder, especially in their building? Karl looked just short of baffled in his postgame comments. He had no idea what to do with them.
It really was sort of a dominant performance from the start. OKC held a 26-point lead in the second quarter and the closest Denver ever got was 10, once being late in the second half. The Nuggets did a nice job forcing Durant outside of the paint, but his first two buckets inside the 3-point line pretty much broke Denver’s back. It got to 86-76 with eight minutes left, but KD dropped two shots, extending the Thunder’s lead back to 14. The game wasn’t over there, but darn close to it.
As Nick Collison said though, this is a game to four and the Thunder have two points. Now it gets tough. Now the Thunder have to win in someone else’s building. Taking care of business at home wasn’t easy by any means, but it was what they were supposed to do. The Thunder are in a good spot though because the Nuggets have to win four of five against a team they’ve dropped four in a row to now. With two of those having to come in OKC. It’s not over by any stretch, but it’s certainly a good start.
NOTES:
- The Nuggets tried to switch things up by going small in the second half, starting Raymond Felton next to Ty Lawson, plus with Al Harrington play a lot at the 4. OKC countered small and handled things fine.
- Westbrook had seven turnovers tonight and was definitely reckless. But he played a pretty solid game overall. He hit some shots, moved the ball well and played a pretty smart game. His turnovers were the kind you can sort of live with. They weren’t backbreakers or anything.
- Loved Scott Brooks sticking with Daequan Cook for extended minutes in the fourth. The Nuggets were small and Cook really was stretching them out. Really good move.
- The very first possession of the game, the Nuggets doubled Durant on a pick-and-roll. KD calmly dribbled a little and found Westbrook who dropped a 3. It was a good sign.
- I thought maybe the biggest shot of the game was the 3 by Cook after Denver had cut it to 11. This game really had that feel that 10 was the cushion for the Thunder and if it got under that, things would get tight. But every time Denver sniffed it, OKC covered their nose.
- Perk was excellent on Nene tonight. Nene was just 2-8 from the floor and did all his damage at the free throw line. There really wasn’t anything easy inside for the Denver big man.
- Who says KD can’t play defense? The two guys he guarded tonight — Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari — were a combined 3-14 for 11 points.
- Here’s a fun stat: Of all teams in NBA history that go up 2-0, 94 percent go on to win the series. Let that freak you out for the next 15 minutes.
- Thirty 3-point attempts for the Thunder. You don’t see that every day.
- Perk got hit with a flagrant early in the first quarter on Wilson Chandler. It was a hard foul for sure, but it was one of those that I think was called just because Chandler jumped high and fell down hard. Pretty sketchy, but then again, it was just a sign of things to come with this crew. Perk just called it a “playoff foul.”
- Scott Brooks on Perk’s added toughness: “I’m sure when he takes his kids to school he does it with attitude.”
- Kenyon Martin laid a pretty blatant shove at mid-court on Serge Ibaka in the first quarter for some reason. It knocked Ibaka down, earned Martin a technical and gave OKC a free point. I don’t know what message he was trying to send with it other than maybe, “I’m not smart.”
- Jimmy Goldstein was in the house again. He’s been to every Thunder home playoff game so far.
- How about that double-spin move layup from Russ? Looked like me hitting the “B” button on Madden ’95.
- There was definitely some iffy officiating throughout this game. Both ways. I actually thought the Thunder benefited quite a bit more from the officiating. It was like there would be a bad call, then a worse make-up call and then a new horrible call. We were stuck in a vicious cycle.
- This is slightly crazy, I realize, but I’m almost more anxious during a game where the Thunder has a big lead than I am in one that’s close. When OKC is up big all I can do is stare at the scoreboard hoping that a) the score holds and b) the clock jumpers from 9:54 to 1:54 by the time I look at it again.
- I got hit right in the face by a t-shirt fired out of a cannon thing. Had my head down typing and it drilled me. Screw you, Balon Blaster.
- Perk really stinks at layups.
- When the Nuggets went with the two point guard lineup, Lawson covered Thabo and basically ignored him entirely. You could tell that Scott Brooks was going back and forth as to what to do. Thabo was playing really good defense on Lawson, but was here was an opportunity to exploit Karl’s adjustment by going with Harden.
- Loved this tweet I got tonight from @AlexR: “if the THUNDER win a title, does Peter Rabbit get a ring too? He’s on the court more than Mullens and Aldrich.”
- To those of you that wouldn’t put on the blue t-shirt because you didn’t want to cover up your Affliction shirt or graphic button-up, don’t come to the next game, OK? We can do without you.
I really was convinced this game would get close at some point. The Nuggets fought back a little before halftime — I thought it was coming. They got close in the fourth — I thought it was coming. But between terrific Thunder defense, otustanding rebounding and just enough offensive execution, OKC held the Nuggets’ head under water the entire game. It really was about as ideal a performance in Game 2 as you could hope for.
Kinda hard to make an excuse after this one. The Thunder just dominated from the opening tip. Nothing controversial about it.
Next up: The Thunder did their part at home. Now it’s on to Denver where things get tougher Saturday night.
Put on the blue shirts both games, never left early.. Geez, we didn't leave until the usher almost pushed us out!
Officiating was crazy, didn't feel like we benefited to me. Felt like there were a bunch of make-up fouls for Sunday at the beginning. At least we were making our shots, never did hear what the stats were on our FT shooting?
@thejoep
Well put
Gotta love how its OK that the Jazz is in Utah(from New Orleans), the Hornets are in New Orleans(from Charolette), The LAKERS!! are in LA (from Minneapolis), the Warriors are in San Francisco(From Philedelphia), the Hawks are in Atlanta(from St. Louis), the Rockets are in Houston(from San Diego), The Clippers are in LA (From San Diego), The Kings are in Sacremento soon to be Anaheim(from Kansas City). The Grizzlies are in Memphis (From Vancouver... isn't that pretty close to Seattle?) All these people that want to talk about a historic francise need to learn the history of the NBA. Teams move. Get over it. And should that guy be drinking at work? I know he's a bartender and all but good grief.
@justin
Id be fine with that.
Id like to see KD finish the playoffs over 40% from 3
@Daniel Plainview
Sammy had a good point, even if he doesn't shoot great from 3PT range and sticks around 34-35%, he'd be better off shooting those than long two pointers.
if Russel is truly reliable behind the arc, i may just lose my mind. Ive always loved him, I just thought it might be the one part of his game he would not improve upon. I have faith hell learn to control the ball and his temper, but I gave up on the three
@Joel
Wow...when did Charlie Sheen take a bartending gig in Seattle?
Haha, pray tell, Rabid-one, what shitty shirt will you don saturday night? And if we crush the Nuggs, will you be leaping off the space needle?
@Joel
Thanks friend. We've heard it a million times. Just imagine if Sac was moving to Lincoln, Nebraska. They'd be going ape-shit.
It's not "justice," it's regional bias.
Let them stew in their filth.
and our shirts are from US Fleet tracking, not Clay. lol
I'm wearing mine now!
@Smokey
Ahh, I know Seattle misses their team - I would too. But man, this guy has taken hatred to an entirely new level.
I'll keep my future stiffs postings to myself. ;)
@Joel
Just more bigotry against Oklahoma. Don't bring that shit to DT.
Wow.. talk about being bitter. Read what this guy posted on the stiffs.
"As a Nuggets fan living in Seattle
This disgusts me. First off, a kindly “fuck you” to you “OKC fans” who have been basically nice and I do not begrudge you your “new team”. However, you have no right to have this team other than what businessmen do in order to make money in and of the methodical corruption of the NBA. As a non-businessman, the only thing, THE ONLY THING, that causes me to give a FUCK about anything about the NBA are the Denver Nuggets and my 36 years of being a die hard fan of. And secondly, I know that SAME love was felt by hundreds of thousands in a “market” approximately SEVEN times larger than OKC’s who had their just as beloved team ripped from them by your valiant owner who has put you all in matching blue shirts each and every night. You people are like Jazz fans without the magic underwear.
I bartend. On Sunday I wore one of my Nuggets shirts for good luck (over 20 YEARS OLD) to work and got ripped off by the NBA’s systematic inveterate corruption by not calling a fucking obvious goaltend. Today I wore one of my Sonics shirts I’ve collected over the years here, in solidarity with the Nuggets, the memory of our awesome 1st round win in 1994 against the great Sonics and to tell you OKC “fans” that you ain’t shit. Nothing against anyone personally from OKC. But you people look like fucking idiots all wearing the same Clay Bennett issued shirt, like you’re all “in the NBA now”. Fuck you. You’re in the big-leagues now as a fan base, not some fucking basketball cult scam that fucking hurt the feelings of lifelong Sonics fans of 41 FUCKING YEARS. You OKC fans aren’t fans. You’re band-wagoneers. You have no idea what it’s like to love a local pro sports team ALL OF YOUR LIFE. Yet, you’re “fans”.
No you’re not. You are minions of a great evil that has befallen the NBA and hopefully it will destroy what the NBA has become so it can rise anew. But I doubt it.
Anyhow, I was too busy to watch much tonight. I kept looking at the score and each and every time, I knew it was not going to end how I wanted it.
Remember 1994 Nuggs “nation”. We’re in the same spot now. Down two. But with the opposing coach coaching us now. That Can better be fucking rocking. Let’s go Nuggs. For Denver and Seattle! (not like anybody in Seattle cares though)
Amen."
@justin
true, but with his length and athleticism, should it really be as rare as spotting a Yeti?
I only saw one replay of Perks flagrant. While I dont think he tried to Kill Chandler, Im not a fan of overly physical play. That could have hurt Chandler,a dn what I dont ever want to see is us learning the hard way of being the instigators of flagrant fouls, because what it could do is have some one try to take Durants head off. I do hope Perk can intimidate while playing within the rules. Id liek to seem him embrace, just a wee bit more, of our style of play pre-trade. I dont want us to become known as dicks or meatheads. I keep forgeting Perk is still only 26
Daniel Plainview :
That offensive board Dunk by Durant should not have looked so odd. How is it he rarely does that?
He's on the perimeter a lot, he doesn't get offensive rebounds often.
Is it true that KD held Gallo and Chandler to 3-14?
As much as I would like to sweep this series, I do wish Chandler and Felton and most of the Nuggets, save Anderson, well. I do like their team. Chandler has had an unfortunately woeful playoffs. However, that could be a positive note come his time to resign - is his contract up this year? Would he want to play with us? He was playing really well for the nicks pre trade
That offensive board Dunk by Durant should not have looked so odd. How is it he rarely does that?
For those of you who dont know, Nate Timmons is a writer (main writer, sorry not sure) over at Denver Stiffs and the little Ive seen him write he has been fair and respectful of our beloved club, and now he comes over here and praises Royce and the Thunder. I think thats huge and we should acknowledge his magnaninimity despite these highly charged times between the two ball clubs.
I channeled my inner Bill Walton when I saw Perk miss that layup that should have been a dunk: "You don't lay it up in that situation -- you gotta slam it down, big man!"
@andrew
Karl doesn't exactly have a great track record in the playoffs and some of the things he has said (much less done) are weird.
I have to "somewhat" retract my comment about the Tree and Leaf shirts. I was at the game and saw the Harden/Beard, Hustle Westbrook and lots of Thunder U shirts. I have to say they look a LOT better "in the wild" than on the website. I might have to get one. I will say I also saw the "playoff" shirt and it did not look good in person.
Hell yeah! My tweet made it onto DT! Woohoo!
"I got hit right in the face by a t-shirt fired out of a cannon thing. Had my head down typing and it drilled me."
*giggle*
Last night I realized something. They should stop even doing those t/o promotions like that goofy credit card puzzle and lay-up. They really take the crowd out of it. Just run out the thunder girls, play something with a good steady beat, keep people clapping. They did that in a couple of the earlier t/o's and it really was much louder.
So doubling KD and RW didn't work. Now Karl says he's going to play the start game 3 with the "scary" and "successful" lineup of Felton and Lawson. Whatever shall we do?
Fun, fun game to watch. And, yes, I wore my shirt and stayed to the end. I've never been one to leave Thunder games early. The offseason is just so long that I want to suck up every minute I can now.
Having been a Mavericks fan and remembering 2006, I'll take the sweep if we can get it, but I'll admit that I'd like to see them win a series at home. At least the NBA doesn't have the 2-3-2 playoff schedule.
OKC took care of business tonight and they handled their business these 1st 2 games. Now its time to get at least a split in Denver.
One thing I worry about in Denver is the altitude. I think Denver comes out with the Lawson/Felton starting and will be determined to play the game as fast as possible. Gonna need to be smart when we push and make a real effort to control the pace of the game.
I think the tone of the game was set by that Perk flagrant. What got him the flagrant was when he swung his arms to go for the hard foul he went across Chandler's face. However, it sent some sort of message to Denver. They routinely left layups short or would pull up for mid-range shots instead of attacking more...at least in the 1st half.
The start of the 2nd half was ROUGH. No energy from either team and the energy seemed to be sucked out of the building as well.
Impressive poise by the Thunder tonight. Every time Denver made a run, they would answer with a run of their own.
The Nuggets of old reared their heads a bit tonight. The past couple of years with Melo you could always count on the Nuggets to self-destruct during the playoffs. Karl seemed to always be able to reel everyone in but even still they'd have their outbursts and be stupid for stretches. Since the trade it seemed like that had stopped but all of a sudden there they were. Martin getting an incredibly stupid Tech. Karl picking up a tech. JR Smith was lucky he didn't get T'ed up.
Saturday should be a good game. Denver didn't stop playing tonight, they kept chipping away at the lead, just the Thunder were able to answer every time thing seemed like they might get tight. The big key will be withstanding the early storm. The Pepsi Center is going to be jacked up and the Nuggets will get an extra boost of energy from the crowd so withstanding that early surge from them will be huge. Don't need to put ourselves in a big hole again.
Seriously, we have beaten the Nuggets 4 straight times(only one of them close). How can a rational person still say they are the better team at this point?
Also, this series is making completely fall out of love with Gallinari. I used to really like the guy, but he isn't doing much of anything useful on offense this series.
I can't believe how much the Denver fans are putting this loss on George Karl. Could it be possible that we are just better?
Also, lol at pretty much anything Jeffrey Morton says over at Denver Stiffs. High comedy.
I hope the team flies immediately after the game to Denver. A couple of days adjusting to the altitude could definitely help our guys in game 3.
Crowd was definitely louder tonight than Game 1. Those rally towels from Game 1 really do silence a crowd.
Our starting line up is not so great when Westbrook and/or K.D. are being double teamed. Having Thabo and Perkins in the game at the same time really hurts. We end up executing exactly how the opponent wants us to -- with Perkins and Thabo taking shots or committing turnovers at the end of the shot clock. If they double team, why not Harden or Cook or Collison to really put pressure on those double-teams? (Collison plaied great tonight offensively!!)
I am not trying to complain after a great win, but thinking ahead to Game 3, this could hurt us.
Last i hear it was standing room only on Sunday at Brookside.. the owner JL, said he couldn't order a drink because of all the noise surrounding the game.. point being, that you should be fine at either location
@ChilamBilam12
Nice. That's southside. My area is definitely mid/downtown. Any idea if the Brookside Leon's gets a decent Thunder crowd?
Grolgar :@ChilamBilam12
Awesome to hear! I’m a relocated Tulsan in OKC. What bar are you at? I likely will be home during a playoff game and I’d love to know where some fellow Thunder fans will be…
Leon's at 71st and 129th.. actually in Broken Arrow, but we are a Thunder hub in Tulsa and it definitely showed tonight.. and would be happy to have another fan in the house
@ChilamBilam12
Awesome to hear! I'm a relocated Tulsan in OKC. What bar are you at? I likely will be home during a playoff game and I'd love to know where some fellow Thunder fans will be...
Despite the complaining, the fans were excellent tonight overall. A step up from Sunday. The clapper dealies the Thunder gave out made it really loud. Yet we are on here complaining about the 5% of fans that didn't wear the shirts and the people that cleared out with 2 minutes left up 15. We are seriously spoiled. The fans were great. There is no fanbase in the NBA that would do better in those 2 categories than the Thunder fans did tonight.
Great stuff here Royce - always a quality read. Thunder are looking real nasty. Hopefully the Nuggets can even things up ... uphill battle!
OKC's rebounding is proving to be a lethal weapon. Grabbing o-boards and protecting their own side. Brutal.
Great article by Hollinger about our win tonight/future aspirations.
http://proxy.espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/27678/thundering-start-hints-at-future-heights
I'm loving the state support thus far.. was bartending tonight in Tulsa and had literally more bar guests then i could handle.. almost all wearing blue and each making their occasional in game predictions, and screaming at every possible Thunder highlight moment.. I was in the same bar at the same point of the playoffs last year, staring at 3 other Thunder fans and praying for an LA upset.. this team has really captured the public and dragging it along for fun
don't you be messin' with...
bad boy Russell
heh
the only thing i'm worried about in denver is if Harden can play well
and the team not being able to come onto the court to "Hustle Hard"
love the recap picture -- camera caught the action right at the "floposecond"... the instant in time just as a player begins his dramatic lunging flopping motion
looks like Nene took an upper cut from Mike Tyson (in his prime -- and standing on a ladder, I guess)
I wish perk would dunk the ball instead of laying it in. That missed put back in 2nd quarter drove me insane. If you are 6-10 280 and have the ball 1 foot from the rim, jam it. Also not a huge fan of 30 3-pt attempts, but if they are going to try and clog the lane and force jumpers then i like having harden, Westbrook and Durant on the floor together. Hit some jumpers, force them to come out, then attack the rim.
@cdub00
Agreed. it was very, very rewarding to be a fan of team ball and a fan of teh Thunder tonight.
James Church :
RIGHT BETWEEN THE EEEEYYYEEEESS!
Creepy! hahaha
*good
Daniel Plainview :Did some gamer break Thabos elusive cheat code?
hahah..funny. the rotations tonight were spot on,
IMO. Food stuff out there! Thunder Up!
@DJ 7
My thought is that after getting beat by us 4 games straight, they will go home with something to prove and a chip on their shoulder. They will want a beat down. I think if we weather the storm they bring in game 3 and get a W, it will deflate them. I think if we win game 3, it will be by 1-3 points. And if we do win game 3, I see game 4 being like how tonight was, a complete thunder arse kicking
@Daniel
Yeah, I even thought they might go in tonite...but alas they did not