SERIES PREVIEW: Can Denver Nuggets compete with OKC Thunder? | Pickaxe and Roll

SERIES PREVIEW: Can Denver Nuggets compete with OKC Thunder? | Pickaxe and Roll

All [Music] right, Nuggets fans. Welcome in to Pickax and Roll, brought to us by our good friends here at Mile High Sports. I am your host, Ryan Blackburn at NBA Blackburn on Twitter, part of the Mile High Sports Podcast Network, and I am ready for tonight’s game one against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Denver Nuggets are back at it. No rest for the weary, no rest for the wicked as they are going to be put into a very tough situation. Perhaps the toughest in the NBA right now uh ahead of what is going to be a very very difficult series. Uh not a lot of rest, not a lot of time to recover. I tried recovering yesterday. It was it was good. I had a I had a great time with my friends. Uh how rested do I feel? Not that much. as as you get older and as you you start to realize, okay, one day is not going to accomplish much. And it probably didn’t accomplish much for the Denver Nuggets either, not going to lie. So, they are going to be pretty gassed heading into game one. And the question is, how much does that matter? Where does it matter? What are the things that are going to really impact Denver from a fatigue standpoint? And does any of it matter if the Thunder are just an all-time great team? Keep in mind, uh, the OKC Thunder are 72 and4 so far this season. They are a very, very good basketball team. Uh, maybe an all-time great basketball team from a regular season standpoint, and it will be on them to prove whether they’re an all-time playoff basketball team. We will just have to wait and see. Once again, I am your host, Ryan Blackburn. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. Would really, really appreciate it. Let’s get into the show here. I’ve got a whole bunch of topics uh that are offscreen, but we’re going to do a series preview for Nuggets Thunder. We’re going to talk about offense and defense, like how much do each of those matter and like which one matters more. the fatigue factor of course. And then I think the fundamental question for this series outside of those factors is just how much better are the Thunder than the LA Clippers? And your answer could be Ryan, that’s an insane question. There are they are a lot better. Did you see their regular season record? Did you see their net rating? Did you see all the great things that they do? And you might be right. You also might be wrong. And one of the reasons why I say that is because the Clippers were two different versions of themselves post all-star break. Uh they were the team with Kawhi Leonard. Uh statistically that was a very very good basketball team. They were also the team uh without Kawhi Leonard before that that was okay. It was pretty good. They they survived. They held water. Um, I’m going to do a quick search here real quick on cleaning the glass and try to I I should have done this before, but just to see from March 1st onward which teams were the best in the NBA statistically. Now, keep in mind the OKC Thunder didn’t really have a lot to play for post March one. They were clearly going to be the one seed. There was nobody that was within their ballpark. And yet they still led the NBA in point differential at plus 13.9 points per 100 possessions since March 1st. They were a they had a record of 20 and three. But keep in mind the LA Clippers were second. They had a record of 18 and5 a plus1 a plus 11.7 point differential. The Clippers post March one had the second best offense and the fifth best defense in the NBA. Uh they were fighting, they were very consistent, they were doing the things that they were supposed to do. Kawhai was looking like Kawawaii. And it’s one of the reasons like that that stretch, one of the reasons why so many people picked the Clippers over the Nuggets was because they showed down the stretch that hey, the version of the team that like was pretty good without Kawhi Leonard is not even their best look. It was the team that had Kawhai that was dominant on both ends of the floor that people were like, “Okay, um, we’re going to see what happens here.” So, from a statistical standpoint, did the Nuggets just play a team that was really, really good and maybe a good preparation for the OKC Thunder. There are some arguments for that. I don’t know if I’m going to make them entirely because I’m not sure if I believe it entirely. I think that there’s plenty of reasons to believe that the Clippers were frauds overall. And what does that mean for the Nuggets, a team that went to seven with them? I don’t know. Um, I don’t want to be overly critical, but I also don’t really believe in the Clippers. And yet, statistically, you can make the argument that they were kind of in a a similar tier, maybe one tier below what the Thunder are and what the the issues that they present right now. So, I’m willing to listen to that argument and we’re going to talk about it on this show, but let’s go over the players. Let’s go over some of these initial factors here. The first and foremost issue like OKC elite offense, elite defense, they are more known for their defense, but again post all-star break on cleaning the or like post March one, they had the best offense in the NBA, the very best OKC did. They were dominating teams. They were creating space. They were using their defense to turn it into offense. They’re doing all the things that a good a good team would do. And so they are clearly a factor, I think, when it comes to both ends of the floor. Like what what is more important uh for Denver? I’m going to start with Denver’s defense because I think that was the more impressive of Denver’s two sides of the ball in the first round of the playoffs. And one of the big reasons was Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon, and the elevated effort of Nicole Joic. He was great in the on the defensive side of the ball about did about as much as could be expected from Joic in that regard. And the way that they were able to defend it bothered Kawhi Leonard at times. It bothered James Harden at times. So the fundamental question here for the Thunder, how close is Shea Gilgis Alexander to Harden or Kawawaii in terms of how Denver has to account for what he does? Um Sheay was the rightful MVP. Not not rightful like cuz you say that and talking to Nuggets fans and with Jokic and everybody loses their minds. Um rightful MVP may not be the right word. a deserving MVP I think is very reasonable to say given the year that he has had given the year that the Thunder have had. Um I think that what he does is sort of a hybrid between what Harden does as a playmaker and what Kawawaii does as a playmaker. You can put SGI on an island. He’s one of the best isolation scorers in basketball. He can get his shot off over everybody in the mid-range, but he’s also one of the craftiest finishers around the rim in the NBA in large part because of what he does from a foul drawing perspective. So, how does Denver account for both? Can they account for both at the same time? His jumper has gotten so much better. Um, he isn’t shooting a large like great percentage from three in the playoffs, I don’t believe. I would have to fact check that, of course, but I do remember that his overall percentages weren’t awesome in the first round. Let’s just look at it quickly. Yeah, 40% from the field, 25% from three. Got to the free throw line eight times though, and that really helped kind of bolster what he was doing. It wasn’t his best work. Can Denver continue to bother him? Is that really something that they can do? Scottie Pippen Jr. was somebody that they used on him pretty consistently in the Memphis series, but you’re going to get switched. Everybody else is going to have to take a turn to guard. Murray will have to guard. Uh Christian Brown’s going to be the primary assignment. Michael Porter is going to have to switch out and guard a little bit. Aaron Gordon, of course, will will have to guard. Joic is probably going to have to guard at times on the perimeter. And they’re going to have to design some different things that they can do to try to take away his offense. Uh, and the question is how much can they take away without sacrificing the rest of the floor? And is SGA a good enough passer to account for that? I don’t think Kawhai was. I think Harden was. Harden is a great elite passer and was able to account for the fact that Denver had to double team him at times. And the adjustment that the Nuggets had to make in game seven was they were going to single cover him. they were going to allow him to cook a little bit and trust Christian Brown and Brown delivered. Can Brown deliver in this situation against this player in this moment after playing a full seven games in the previous series? I don’t know. Like that is a that is a tough ask for anybody. And the thing that Denver probably is missing right now is just the layers of perimeter defenders that they can throw at SGA without compromising their defense or without compromising their offense, excuse me. So, I’m curious to see what they deliver. Curious to see what it looks like for them. And I am going to uh I’m going to be very interested in how the Nuggets handle this assignment and whether they overindex on what SGA does. If you guys remember in game four of u in game four of this series, not like in the regular season, excuse me, the Nuggets started to use a coverage called double fist, which was SGA when he’s got the ball at the top of the key, he’s just dribbling. They bring two guys out at him and try to double him at half court effectively. uh whether it’s above the break, whether it’s even closer to the half court line, they’re trying to get the ball out of his hands and rotate behind it. That’s because he was so good in the game before and was doing great things in the first half of that fourth game. So, it’s going to be interesting to see. Is Denver going to dare him to beat them so that they don’t get put into rotation on a consistent basis? I don’t know. Uh, but whatever it is, Denver’s going to have to be better, even better than they were in the first round because Kawawaii is great, Harden’s great, SGA is spectacular. Uh, so I’m I’m curious to see how they handle it. I see uh see the King of Thornon in the chat. What you all don’t know is I text Ryan’s stuff right as he is starting his podcast just to throw off his game. Uh, true, too, true. I was I was trying to do both at the same time and as as always Jeff uh Jeff my guy is just uh he’s keeping things interesting on that front. So shout out to uh shout out to the king of Thornton himself. Um okay, next up on this list, Jaylen Williams and Chad Hongren are the second and third best offensive players for OKC. uh Isaiah Joe might factor in there at least a little bit with the spacing that he provides with the the offball movement and some of the things that he does as a role player, but from a star kind of scorer perspective, it really is JDub who was an all-star this year and Chad Hungren who people argue was the second best player on that team at times. I think JDub has claimed that title at this point. But my question is, can Aaron Gordon guard Jaylen Williams in the same way that he guarded Kawhai? I don’t think so. JDub is way quicker. He’s way more athletic at this point. He’s a better defender. A little bit less precise, of course, in terms of the the shot making. So, there might be a little bit more of a margin for error there. AG will have to sag off. he’ll have to uh do a little bit of things in terms of kind of daring him to beat them at times. Uh JDub is still trying to figure out his own uh aspect of this and then how he is going to handle the playoff environment. Um in the first round, JDub 23.3 points per game, 54.2% from the field, 28.6% from three, 60% from the free throw line. Interesting. So, he basically put up Jamal Murray’s production in the first series without Jamal Murray’s efficiency. Um, actually, that may not be true because of the the high field goal percentage. Actually, no, it really is Jamal Murray’s efficiency, which I think is very interesting. Uh, just way more downhill. Jamal was a little bit more shot making outside. JDub clearly going to the rim, going to the mid-range a little bit more consistently. So, it’s going to be fascinating. Like I think Aaron can put up a little bit more resistance than some of the Memphis defenders if there is one major weakness for Memphis, especially without some of their like Jaylen Wells isn’t there. like they started a game with Santi Alama at small forward, Jiren Jackson at power forward and uh Zach Edi at center. So they don’t have the same level of like athleticism and perimeter stuff that that Denver could could get to. Uh so there’s at least an argument that Aaron Gordon especially is a guy that they can throw out then. And I I think Michael Porter is going to be the guy that they put on Chad Homegrren initially, but there is kind of an argument to me that Pton Watson might be the right call to guard JDub and that moves Aaron Gordon over to Chat Homegrren. So, do you take Michael Porter off the floor in some of those cases? I don’t know. Uh, it’s a little bit different. Uh, Russell Westbrook is going to be somebody that they’re going to have to figure out how to handle with him. How are they going to approach those different matchups? It’s a it’s a major question at this point and Denver still has a lot of things to answer. And the fact of the matter is that whatever Denver tries to throw out there from a defensive perspective, it’ll have a residual effect on the offensive side of things. Denver’s going to get to some of the things that they like. OKC is going to get to some of the things that they like. Those things aren’t going to be the same. and Denver and OKC are going to have to continue battling it out with each other and making these counter adjustments and adjusting some different things. And they are also going to have to account for Michael Porter. I would assume that JDub guards Michael Porter and Lou Dor guards Jamal Murray. That would be my guess. Uh so there’s that’s that’s a tough match up for both of those guys. Uh, it’s going to be very interesting to see how the Nuggets handle this thing. I’m I’m really curious to see like can they score, but also can they guard? Like this is this is a different beast I think than what the Clippers provided. Okay, let’s take a break. When we come back, we’re going to talk a little bit more uh individual questions as well as talk about the fatigue factor and try to answer just how much better the Thunder are then the Nugget or then the Clippers. Not the Nuggets, Thunderrar, then the Clippers. And then once we’re done with that, I will give a prediction for the series. We’ll make that official. My last official prediction was Nuggets and six over the Clippers. Uh kind of wavered off of that obviously after game three, but I still get credit because it was Nuggets and six down. Denver did go to seven and was was not happy about that, but is what it is. Uh, we’ll we’ll talk about that next up here on Pickax and Roll. All right, we are back. Pickax and Ryan Blackburn here. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit the like button. Hit the subscribe button. would really really appreciate it. Big moment here for the Nuggets as they kick off this series tonight. Not a lot of turnaround time, of course. You get one day of rest. You get one opportunity to try to hit first and see if you’ve got anything left in the tank. I do think that as this series goes along, the fatigue factor becomes a little bit less important because OKC is then in the thick of it. Uh like it is interesting. I’m not sure for a long series. I I might have to ask this is also a question that they probably won’t answer in the moment, but asking the players when they think the fatigue really sets in within a series in this situation like because they they just played a seven gamer. So are they going to be more tired in game two? And is that kind of level of fatigue more desperate early in the series or later in the series where OKC has now played a whole bunch of games and they are also tired. Is does the gap shrink or expand between just how fatigued the Nuggets are versus where the Thunder are? I don’t really know the answer. So that’s something that I’ll have to ask at some point. Um, okay. What’s going on? All right. Let’s go with another question here. What are the fundamental differences between OKC’s defense and the Clippers defense? So, the Clippers on the season had a great defense. They were they were fantastic. If you just go to NBA.com, you sort by overall for the season. Defensive rating, the Thunder were first, the Clippers were third. Uh they were not that far off. Like OKC had about uh 2.8 points per 100 possessions better in terms of how good their defense was. Uh but if you go to the four factors of each of those teams and and just how they really approach it, the Thunder prevents opposing teams from getting the best shots. They have the best opponent EFG percentage in the entire NBA. Free throw rate, uh neither of those teams are like really close. They foul. They do foul pretty consistently. Clippers are kind of average. OKC fouls a fair amount, but opposing turnover percentage is where you really see OKC shine. They h they forced the most opposing turnovers in terms of percentage in the entire NBA. The Clippers were eighth. Uh but they they really did amp it up as well with Chris Dunn and Nico Batum really playing more and uh Derrick Jones Jr. playing a little bit less and Kawawaii playing more. They were very good forcing turnovers. The Clippers in the regular season were elite at defensive rebounding. The Thunder were 19th. That that was one of their weaknesses. And if you kind of think back to matchups between OKC and Denver historically, like in the last three years, the size factor with Joic and with Aaron Gordon and those guys really big when going up against a skinnier guy like Cadet Hungren. Now, Denver still really hurt themselves because Chad was blocking everything up a storm in a lot of those games and they weren’t necessarily able to take full advantage of it. Especially when the Thunder are so good once they once you grab a rebound under the offensive glass. They’re so good at stripping you and and like and bothering you and making it so difficult to get up a good shot again that oftent times it doesn’t even it’s not even in your best interest to go up for a shot and you just have to reset the offense as quickly as you can. So, Denver’s got to be better on the offensive glass in this series than they were against the Clippers. Uh, now to be fair, they were pretty solid overall against the Clippers in that series. They did a pretty good job, I would say. like their offensive rebounding rate on the season uh per and for per basketball reference was 26.7% in the playoffs against the Clippers. Their offensive rebounding rate on the season or on that was 27.7. So they’re actually a little bit better than you would expect. Um, the Clippers of course were a little bit worse than you would expect and that was a big factor. That’s like Denver playing a little bit bigger than them, playing with a little bit more size. The Clippers constantly playing Kawawaii at the four. They’re playing Ben Simmons at the five a lot in early in the rounds and then kind of went away from that. They were playing Nico Batum at the five. Didn’t really have a traditional backup five. The Thunder do. they do now that they’ve added Isaiah Hartinstein. He is going to start in a lot of these games, I would guess. Now, there is an argument that they won’t start Hartinstein, that they’ll start Homegrren, and then they’ll go small, and they’ll have like Kase Wallace out there, who could be somebody that’s very disruptive against Nuggets perimeter guards, especially Jamal Murray. Um, but I don’t think that that’s what’s going to happen. I think that that the most the like the largest factor here is whether the whether OKC is going to go two bigs or one. And I think that they’re going to go two against Denver. I think that that’s the most likely scenario in this particular matchup. Um okay, this is just like hating on purpose like you’re you’re going in timeout. Um, I think in general that if Denver can crack the offensive rebounding and get to the middle of the floor against OKC, they’re going to be pretty good. Now, OKC’s defense is has had plenty of time to game plan for the Nuggets and plenty of time to game plan for the Clippers. It’s ultimately the Nuggets that they’re going to play, but they’ve they’ve had plenty of time to figure out how they are going to approach each of those matchups, how they’re going to study like the four matchups in the regular season, what they did well, what they did poorly, how they can adjust, what are some of the counter adjustments that they’re going to get into. Um, and so I think they’re going to be ready defensively for what the Nuggets have to throw at them offensively. And the question will be, can Denver make shots anyway? Can they avoid turnovers? Can they do the things uh that Memphis did not do? Memphis averaged 19.25 turnovers per game. They had 77 total turnovers in four games. In the four like game series previously, Memphis is a higher turnover team. They are a little bit more of a wild team. The Nuggets had 20 turnovers in that game two loss that they had. Overall, Denver’s turnover issues weren’t that large against the Clippers, but it did disrupt their offense at times. Can the Nuggets still avoid turnovers in this series against a team that’s even better at generating them? I don’t know the answer. A lot of that is going to come down to Joic, how he handles that pressure. There’s going to be like like anytime Michael Porter dribbles, there will be 17 different arms and appendages that are going to be reaching for the ball and trying to strip it from him. Um, with Murray, he’s going to be like the physicality that Dort is going to try to apply to him is going to be very strong. And then if it’s other guys other than Dort like Kase Wallace, every time you try to dribble near him, he is digging for that ball trying to steal it. The same thing with Alex Caruso. Those guys are going to absolutely go ham wild trying to go like go for the jugular in these cases and try to make things very difficult for Denver. That’s the style of play that OKC has. So, can the Nuggets handle that? I don’t know. Um, I think that shotmaking will obviously be a big deal. OKC’s shotmaking, not as strong, I would say, as the Clippers shotmaking overall, but like there were also plenty of times where the Clippers just had wide open shots and just had those shots dry up a little bit. Actually, no. I’m gonna I’m gonna take away that statement. The Clippers have too many guys like Chris Dunn, like Derrick Jones Jr., like uh Ben Simmons, who’s out there. Um different things. Nico Batum would go through stretches where he was great, go through stretches where he couldn’t really hit anything. I think the Thunder are a better shooting team, but that isn’t necessarily backed up by how they performed in the playoffs. It’s It’s really not the way that they shot against the Memphis Grizzlies. Like, what percentage did they shoot overall? 31% from three. Like, that’s not good enough. If if they shoot 31% from three against the Nuggets, you have to feel good about the Nuggets in that situation. Um, I don’t think that they are going to be able to hold down the Nuggets offense the way that they were able to hold down Memphis. And like they also committed 42 total turnovers in the series, so they averaged like 10.5 per game versus Memphis’s 19.2. Like that’s just such a massive margin. Uh, the free throw battle is going to be fascinating. The three-point battle is going to be fascinating. how Denver handles this. Like, can they get into a situation with OKC where OKC is in a tight series and they have to make pressure shots because if there is one argument in favor of Denver in this series is that they’ve handled a lot of pressure. They are very resilient. They’re a resilient bunch and know exactly what they are supposed to do when the going gets tough, when it’s a tight situation. Denver’s lo like they lost in seven last year to Minnesota, but I don’t think that they got tight when they lost to Minnesota. They just they just got tired. So, there’s an argument that Denver just gets tired here. Like I I I want to make sure that people understand this. Denver’s had a rough year. They’ve had a long year. OKC’s had an easy easy as hell year. Like they do not they have not had to work that hard this year because of how much depth that they have, how great their formula is. They have been attacking as a perimeter-based offense and defense and doing a lot of great like they have so many options and their guys are all bought in on the defensive end. So, like you’ve got a strong baseline there, but what happens like Denver’s now bought in on the defensive end. It’s the playoffs. They have to be. So, yeah, I I I don’t know. Like, guys, they are tired. Like, Denver’s tired. I I don’t think that Denver’s winning this game tonight. And there’s a very strong possibility that Denver gets blown out in this game tonight. It would be great if they didn’t. Like, this would be a wild game for Denver to win this game one. And I think the argument that you have to have if you’re going to argue for Denver, if you’re going to argue for Denver to win this series, you have to say the following two things. One is that Denver’s not actually as tired as they seem to be by the end of that series. And two, they get at least one in OKC. I do not think that Denver can come back and win four of the next five games if they lose both games in OKC. They have to at least split. And so you you got to go get one. And the question is like which one do you try to go get? Do you try to go for game one? Do you try to go for game two? I think you try to go for game two personally because like you just get into OKC. You see what’s happening. you see what they’re looking for and then you really try to amp it up in the next game. But I think that there is an argument that if Denver gets one in OKC, they don’t even have to get both in Denver. They just have to get one there. And so if it’s 1-1 coming home and then 22 going back to OKC, then you suddenly find yourself in a game five situation where OKC is now in like I would call that adversity. I would call that an adverse situation for them where they haven’t been facing a lot of adversity a lot like over the course of this regular season. They’re 72 and 14, 68-4 in the regular season, 4-0 in the playoffs. If you’re Denver, you’ve already won two games against OKC in the regular season. If you get one in OKC, then it it all flips. It all like the perspective shifts at least a little bit. So, I’m very curious to see whether Denver can handle that or not. I do think that fatigue is a factor and it’s why I kind of think that they give up game one, try to rest, try to figure it out, and then really go hard in game two. That is just a projection on my part. That is not built-in reality. Um, okay. This dude is just like getting banned straight up. Couple more final questions. Can Jamal Murray be better in round one against what is a clearly worse matchup for him? Chris Dunn is a great perimeter defender. This is like a match up against four separate Chris Duns. Like straight up, this is going to be very, very difficult for Jamal. Whether it’s Lou Dort, who is notably physical, hard-nosed, disruptive defender who’s probably going to foul him a whole heck of a lot. Some of it’s going to be called, some of it’s going to be not because it’s the playoffs. Uh, is there going to be some shenanigans with that where like every every fan base that I’ve talked to about Lou Dort has complained about Lou Dort? Uh, is that because Lou kind of toes the line in terms of what’s legal and what’s not? Absolutely. So, can Murray handle that Canada on Canada crime? It does kind of feel like Sheay and Lou, based off of what happened for Team Canada this last year, I think they hold some residual hate in their heart. Not hate, but like some some annoyance for the way that Murray played. And I’m sure that they are wanting to make a point of it. So, we’ll see what happens with this. But can Murray be better? He he averaged 23, six and five in the first series and was good from an efficiency standpoint. Not great, he was good. 40% from three is really great. 48% from the field is okay. Um, he can be better. He can he can be better in some ways. They’re going to need him to be great in this matchup if he’s if they’re going to advance. Is this matchup easier or diff more difficult for Jokic? He’s going to have to go against Hartinstein. Chat’s going to be rotating over. Hartinstein is probably less of a defender than Zubat is. Uh but Hartinstein is also very physical, just a little bit more stringy. Uh not necessarily as thick and heavy set as Zubas is. So I’m curious to see whether Yic can handle that a little bit better. Jaylen Williams, the big Jaylen Williams, if he rotates in, that’s a matchup that Joic has to take advantage of. And if Cadet is guarding Joic, how does Joic evolve around that? Can he shoot over him? Can he play strong through him? Uh, can Chad get into foul trouble? That’s a that’s a major factor in this series. What’s the role of Russell Westbrook? What’s the role of Pton Watson? Do the Nuggets expand the rest of their bench in this series? They played a seven and a half man rotation in the in game seven before getting into garbage time. Russ is going to play a lot. He’s going to have to drive the drive the lanes and try to create some offense off the dribble because Murray’s going to struggle with it. So, can Russ do that without getting into turnover issues? Can he continue to shoot the ball well? I don’t know. We’re going to find out. He played so well against the Clippers that he deserves the benefit of the doubt here. So, I’m curious to see what he brings. Pton Watson, again, make big shots, take big assignments on the defensive end, handle your stuff. Denver’s going to need Peyton Watson for sure. In this series, I am going to predict I’m gonna predict Thunder and six. And the reason why I’m going to do that is for obvious reasons. OKC is a fantastic team. They deserve a ton of credit. It is probably their year. I am hedging the bet between the two outcomes that I think are most likely to happen. The first is that OKC just rolls. Denver doesn’t have anything left to give. OKC is clearly the best team in the NBA and the Nuggets are happy with their first round win, but aren’t necessarily like they they don’t necessarily have much more to give in this tough situation. So, it could be Thunder and four, Thunder and Five. If it is not Thunder in four or Thunder in five, if it’s not one of those where Denver gets overwhelmed, then it is far more likely to just be a 50/50 series. Because if Denver does enough to extend the series and put it into a situation where the Thunder still have to make take and make big big shots, I am seriously uh interested in how they handle that. They did not handle that well against Dallas last year. This is the same team. This is still the youngest team in the NBA. They have a little bit more experience. They’ve had a freaking awesome year, but how does that translate? What does it look like? How do they how do they handle their stuff this time around in this situation? Um, so I think it’s 5050 between those two situations. And so I’m kind of hedging my bets between the two. I think Thunder and Six is a likely outcome. I I can see the idea where the Thunder really dominate, but I can also see the idea where Denver hits them back. They’re a little bit surprised that Denver has more to give and then this is a 50-50 series. Likely a Thunder and seven or Nuggets in seven kind of series. But I feel like it is very very very much tilted in that direction and anybody like Nuggets fans, I get it. You want to have belief in your team. I totally understand this is a different animal and the Thunder are just in a different situation I think than the Clippers were. The Clippers were great. And there are some like serious there are some serious reasons to believe that the they the way that they played the Clippers at the end of the season is a lot closer to where the Thunder are now and Denver just beat them. So, I can understand that perspective. I don’t agree. I think the I have thought this the entire season. I think the Thunder are the best team in the NBA and they are going to be extremely overwhelming for the Nuggets to deal with. Hope I’m wrong. Like I’m not I’m not here to I would like to be wrong in this situation. This is one where I like I’ve kind of thought this is how it’s going to go that Denver’s probably going to lose this in the second round. You guys have heard that from me over and over again this season. That’s kind of just where I see this team. Maybe I’m incorrect. Who knows? You guys can all laugh at me if I’m wrong. I give you permission. You’ll probably laugh at me regardless because that’s just how this goes. But I do think that in general if Denver were to win this series, it would be their greatest accomplishment. It would be their best series win as a team over winning the title because that Miami team was nowhere close to how good this OKC team is. Nowhere close. And so if Denver were to if Denver were to win this one, holy cow, like that would be a gargantuan upset. You guys have seen what the what the odds are looking at on all these betting sites. Like OKC’s like a minus 900 the last time I I checked it to win the series. So going to be going to be very interesting. Um, I don’t have that much belief, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. As I wrote about yesterday, this the Nuggets win that they just got to end round one was huge. Like, it turned what was a pretty ugly season into, okay, this was bearable. This was a bearable season. It was understandable. Denver’s probably still going to have to make changes at some point, but they totally I I don’t know. I don’t know. We’re just going to have to wait and see. Tonight’s going to be very interesting. How much does Denver have to give? Do the Thunder just roll? Like, I’m I’m very curious to see what happens. All right. I did not pick Okay, Virgil, I did not pick Clippers in six. I picked Nuggets in six. I would know because I picked them. Like that’s I did not pick them. That is clearly no. This is just not that’s not what we’re doing. I picked Nuggets in six right now. I’m picking Thunder in six and that’s okay. Like they are an alltime team. They they have the potential at least to be an all-time team. So we will see what happens. All right, that is going to do it for this episode of Pickax and Roll. Brought back. Good friends here at Mile High Sports. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Hit the like button. Hit the subscribe button on the way out. Uh very curious to see what happens in this series and what the Nuggets have more to give. We’ll find out together. All right, guys. I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow.

On the latest episode of Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn does a complete series preview for the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder. The series tips off tonight, and the Nuggets have a quick turnaround while the Thunder have nine days of rest. How will Denver handle it? Can they do anything to slow down OKC’s dominant season? Ryan goes over the matchups, the Jokic vs SGA MVP angle, the fatigue factor, and makes a series prediction.

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