NBA GameTime reacts to Denver Nuggets beat Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 in Gm 1; Jokic outplay SGA

NBA GameTime reacts to Denver Nuggets beat Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 in Gm 1; Jokic outplay SGA

now has two game winners already this postseason. The Denver Nuggets go on the road and win at OKC. Only five teams did that all regular season. Nuggets were one of them. Welcome to Playoff Central Live. That’s the Allstar Steve Smith. That’s the wallar John Wall. I’m that other guy Chris Miles. And man, a a round that features the two MVP finalists last year and this year going head-to-head, neither disappointed. So, let’s start with the stat lines because Shay Gilis Alexander got to show him love. 33 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists. But Nola Joic a historic game 422 and six helpers. For those trying to figure out, okay, how rare is that? He’s just a 13th player in NBA history, Smitty, to have a 4020 game. Shaq had four of them. Will had 13 of them. I mean, that’s bingo numbers. I mean, it just unreal the way he just can control a game in so many different ways. I mean, such great IQ, great touch, understands the moment, time, and score like a point guard, and um he’s just one of those guys. What What can you do? These are two bigs for OKC. And he’s dominate down there on the block. He has he has the entire package. He can shoot the three. He can go off the bounce. Now, it’s slow, but it’s methodical when he’s make the right play. You know, John, there’s some players where you can look at a box score. Nicole Yokic is one of those guys. But as we came down to the wire, we understand how special SGA is, but there was this feeling like, okay, Nicole Joic is going to do something here. He’s going to make big plays when it counts. What is it about him that makes him so special in that way? There’s nothing you can do. He has everything you want. He has the touch. He got the shot. He got the IQ. And we I said this before, there’s only three guys in the league. I feel like they can control a game however they want. Maybe four. James Harden, Luca, LeBron, and Joic. They’re basically all can be like point guards. And he knew when they take the big shots, he knew when to make the right plays. But to dominate the game like this with 42 points, 22 rebounds, and he could have had a triple double. Guys miss some shots. That’s why he only had six assists. And we said early on, we thought he was playing bad because he had like five, three turnovers at halftime. Still doesn’t matter. Find a way to get this win right here. And Aaron Gordon makes a big shot. It’s his sixth career 40point playoff game. And Smitty matched his careerhigh in rebounds. But when I look at the Denver Nuggets, I go, "Hold on. They had three starters with double doubles because Aaron Gordon, who hit the gamewinner, also matched the season high with 14 rebounds." And here’s the thing, we see him hit the game winner from long range. He was three for six from outside, but he had been struggling in the playoffs before making that three from long range. Smitty, but had all the confidence in the world to shoot. But he’s so important for them because he does so much down on the block as a power forward, then he plays a little bit of five. He’s worked on that shot. He’s worked on his being able to make plays outside the paint. And this one right here. Oh, he went got him. I love the way he’s been playing. They can’t win ball games without him. Give Russell a lot of credit. Hit the open man no matter what. Trust your teammates. And he knocked it down. You know, John, we’ve heard so much about the Denver Nuggets of when they won their championship, they had so much help from other guys, but Russell Westbrook, the way he’s been playing, we saw him in game seven against the Clippers exercise that demon against his former team. Then in this one, 18 points, seven for 13 from the field. So many impact plays for the future Hall of Famer against the team that drafted him. Yeah, you know, it’s like a lovehate relationship with Russ. a lot of people watch him play, but he brings that energy every night. He brings that charisma that you need for your team and he gives him joy. He brings that excitement and like I was we was watching the game and he came in and had a big play defensively, got a block, you know, I mean, did those little things. He’s doing the little things when he made that play there. He could have went there and took it to the basket and try to get the shot off, but you seen Aaron going running the floor, made the right play, and they helped him seal the win. Yeah, absolutely. Russell Westbrook again more efficient 1 for five from three-point range but across the board outside of that just absolutely phenomenal. And Christian Brown 11 and 13 Smitty when I look at him you don’t think okay this guy’s going to get you 13 boards in a road playoff game but here we are. I mean, so many different things. Uh, jump shots, timely jump shots. He runs the floor. Sometimes he’s not rewarded, but he’ll run the lane so hard, opens up the lane for others. He is guarding. I mean, he guarding SGA down the stretch with not a lot of help. And then also, he gets big big rebounds like you said, and he’s athletic. I I love the way he’s worked on his game, been able to be more of a catch and shoot guy, and they’re playing him a lot of minutes, and they trusting him now. Yeah. Incredible to see the Denver Nuggets plus 20 on the glass, 63 rebounds. Now, OKC was in full control most of this game. And we got to give a lot of credit to Alex Caruso putting on the KU show. He had 20 points, which is a new playoff career high, the most he scored in a game this season. John also had five steals and really seemed like, okay, if he’s going to play like this, uh, the Nuggets have no chance. Caruso was very impressive. Yeah, like when Cruso is doing those thing, we know he can do defensive but out there knocking down shots, making threes for them. That was big for them. But defensively, he does the little things coming and helps out, getting a block like you see there. Yogi think he’s one. Come on, make a big shot. Here he’s spotting up making shots. He’s doing the little thing they need and they and they got a boost for it because it started the second half. He got a chance to start and he was in every passing lane in every mixup that they wanted to see. Yeah, I mean the Thunder defensively, we know what they’ve been all season. First the NBA in the regular season in steals. Second in block Smitty. They exceeded those numbers. 23 stocks in this one. 11 blocks, 12 steals. They were everywhere despite this loss. You know, I love it. Like you said, the block shots, the steals, but what was impressive, only nine turnovers. I mean, they played a really good floor game. Just unfortunately down the stretch they couldn’t knock down the free throws and they couldn’t finish, you know, down the stretch. They did a good job. It was like a one-tw2 against Shay Gilbert Alexander and he struggled trying to, you know, break down the defense from from the top. Well, to that point, the Nuggets ended the game on a 19-6 run. And when we think of Oklahoma City and we think of the Thunder, the number one seed last year, number one seed this year, John, all season people said, well, there’s only one knock. When it comes to crunch time in the postseason, can they rely on anyone else not named Shay Gilis Alexander? and he had five of those six points and Chad Hungren missed those free throws at the very end. Yeah, I think Jayla Williams has to be more aggressive in the fourth quarter. You really didn’t hear nothing about him. He has to be that guy. They’re going to double team SGA and try to get the basketball out of his hands. He has to be the guy to step up and run those pick and rolls and make those plays for him. And uh we didn’t really see him too much in that in that point there. And check yeah, when Shaq missed the first free throw, you see in his eyes, he wasn’t really comfortable for the second one. And then you just see him, they didn’t get back on defense and get loaded up and guard the guys they needed. give credit to Denver. They didn’t give up. We knew they was going to make a push in the fourth quarter. And what we said with Yokic is your leader, a guy that could dictate the offense and run the floor the way they do. They made a lot of big plays. Yeah, certainly. Uh for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They’re down 10 in this series to the Denver Nuggets after Aaron Gordon hit that game winner. Here’s Thunder head coach Mark D. Denver’s experience there late uh and you guys uh you know trying to make the plays down the stretch. Yeah, credit them. I thought um they out executed us down the stretch. Um I liked a lot of what we did most of the night to have control of the game. Obviously didn’t close it tonight, but I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we got a lot of feedback in terms of our plan. Didn’t think our execution was as clean as it can be. Um but what you know, we’ll learn from it. It’s a series. Obviously, I know generally you you try to foul up uh three, but is there any part of you that uh you know wishes that that last sequence went differently and and especially the the possession where you know Jokic just still waiting to to check in? Uh I don’t know exactly what possession you’re talking about on that one, but um yeah, I mean that’s usually our deal is to foul up three uh and to play that game. I thought we executed the fouls pretty well. Um got the ball in bounds pretty well. It didn’t go our way tonight, but um it’s worked out well for us in the past. We’ll continue to look at it, maybe learn from it, but I didn’t think that’s why we lost the game. And and with with Joic, it felt like I I think he had at least eight free throws in that that fourth quarter, it felt like, you know, he’s on the fence with the fifth foul and and there are some sequences that maybe swing that game. Like, how difficult is that when you’re trying to, you know, shift center out the game, you know, chat to to Hart and and try to manage that? Um, I mean, I thought a lot of the free throws that hurt us in the fourth were like backcourt fouls that were, you know, just sloppy execution on our part that we can learn from and clean up. Um, you know, we had them in the bonus early in the first, they were in the bonus early in the fourth. That hurt us. Shimmer. Daddy, get home. Are you done? That’s about Don’t be Follow me. Follow me. Good boy. [Music] [Music]

NBA GameTime reacts to Denver Nuggets beat Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119 in Game 1; Nikola Jokic outplay SGA