Shorthanded Nuggets pull off ‘psycho’ win against undefeated rival

DENVER—The Denver Nuggets were down by 16 to the undefeated Oklahoma City Thunder, who boast the NBA’s best defense and four-straight wins against the Mile High Crew—it was over, until it wasn’t.

Buoyed by Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook’s all-around efforts, young players stepping up and some experimentation, the Nuggets topped the Thunder 124-122. It wasn’t just a stunning in-game turnaround but a reversal from Opening Night when OKC killed a fully healthy Nuggets team. And Wednesday, the Nuggets were not that—down both Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, the home team were 7.5 point underdogs.

They played like the lesser team in the first half too, but hung in the game eventually finding a repeatable recipe for success.

“It’s never just one person that ignites a comeback,” Michael Malone said crediting Jokic and Westbrook. “To beat a team like that, it takes everybody, but obviously, for a 17-year vet to have that kind of a game was tremendous. And I’m really happy for us.”

The clash between the West’s two best in the regular season last year has now been split, with Denver picking up their second in-conference victory. These two won’t meet again until a back-to-back set in Oklahoma in March. Between now and then the Nuggets will have to ask some real questions of their roster and get some serious solutions if Denver is going to keep up with the Joneses—or in this case, keeping up with the J. Williamses and crew. But the Nuggets can’t really start to work on their main stuff until Murray and Gordon return from injuries. The guard has been out a week with a concussion while the forward is expected to miss weeks due to a calf injury.

So what did Micheal Malone do? See what the Nuggets have behind their starting five and experiment.

“Your hope is that it just gives them more and more confidence,” Malone said of his strange lineups, having to go deeper into the Nuggets repertoire of youngsters. “They’re in the game to close games, so you can’t replicate that. And then any situation being in the game, those games, and now you’re doing against the undefeated team.”

The Nuggets tried different defenses on last year’s MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The team worked unusual suspects into playmaking positions, had an array of players boasting tweaked roles all while they were tasked with solving the league’s top defense.

“Being in those moments is something that came with a replicated practice, you can’t get that anywhere else besides being in the moment,” Christian Bruan said. “When you have guys out… there’s nowhere else you can learn besides being thrown into the fire. You got to guard Shai on the switch. You got to hit a big shot. You got to hit the free throw, whatever it is. There’s nowhere else you can get that. So that’s always good for everybody.”

Bruan and Peyton Watson started on Wednesday and finished while Julian Strawther was in during crunch time and Hunter Tyson nearly played 20 minutes. Braun hit a career-high four triples to score 24 points with eight rebounds. Watson finished with 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and three blocks including a game-winning one on SGA at the buzzer. Strawther struggled to shoot but played point during most of Denver’s comeback 27-9 run, being a team-high plus-12 while getting five rebounds and tallying six assists. Tyson was one of just eight Nuggets to even play and his four rebounds helped Denver control the glass by eight over OKC.

“Confidence is one of the biggest things you want to instill into younger guys,” Westbrook said. “Just in general, you have confidence in yourself and your abilities together do things that you’ve practiced on in the summer for an opportunity given all these guys in the team, they put in work every single day, on the court, in the weight room, and prepare themselves. Nothing is surprising to me. I’m just happy to see it.”

Besides the result, a surprise of the night was Brodie and Nuggets fans were more than happy to see it. Ball Arena erupted behind an electric performance from Westbrook. The former MVP scored a season-high 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting, adding six rebounds and six helpers in sliding into Murray’s starting role. While he just missed out on his first 30-point game in almost 600 days, he had not provided this level of production in a regular-season game since late 2022.

“I think he’s he’s been incredible for us,” Malone said. “You look at the offensive productivity tonight, I think defensively, he’s been a rock star. What I love about Russell Westbrook, a 17-year vet, he is trying so hard to be disciplined. He’s trying to do the things we’re asking him to do. And I appreciate that so much because at 17 years in a lot of times, you are who you are. But he cares. He is so invested in this team and what he’s bringing to this team, and he’s so hard on himself. But I can coach a guy like Russell Westbrook any day, because he is a competitor and he’s a tough dude, and I want him to my foxhole.”

Likewise, Westbrook wants Malone next to him while walking down a dark alley. It was the coach picking up a technical foul for a non-call on Jokic that began Denver’s huge third-quarter run, including a 12-0 stretch just after the whistle.

“We both a little psycho in the head a little bit. We knew that right from the get-go, which is why we get along,” Westbrook said of his new coach.

While Jokic didn’t get the call there, the Nuggets got to the stripe 33 times, not losing in any of the four games where the team has attempted 30 or more. In fact, Denver is now 11-0 in the last two years when hitting that mark. Jokic only shot six from the stripe, something that got a rise out of him in game to the tune of a tech and earned some rumblings from his teammates after the contest. Whistle or not there was a lot of contact from budding star defender Chet Holmgren. But the three-time MVP scored 23 points on 9-of-20 shooting, adding 20 rebounds and 16 assists. It was his 13th career 20-20 contest and 134th triple-double, his fourth of the young season. Malone said it was one of the star’s most complete games of his 762-game NBA career.

“I’d say 95% of my techs are, you know, have a plan behind it,” Malone said. “I feel like Nikola is getting beat up and I gotta fight. I mean, everything Nikola has done for this city, this team, this franchise, me, my family, I’m gonna fight for that guy and anybody else in our team. But it’s also like, Hey, man, I don’t know what we were down at that point, but whatever the run is from that tech after we got back in the game, and so you’re hoping to kind of light a fire under a guy. Hey, let’s keep fighting. You know, we’re not going to just kind of go gently into the good night. Let’s fight and stay around and see what happens. And that’s been a common theme. That’s one thing I’m not proud of the fact we haven’t won the first quarter. I’m proud of the fact that we don’t get down, we don’t quit, we stay with it. And that’s the sign of the champion.”

Denver has now trailed by 14 or more points in four of their five wins this season. They’re the first team to tally 120 or more on OKC’s defense. What the Nuggets proved at Ball Arena on this night was a real recipe to win games and a lot of them. They got to the foul line, they shot and made nearly the same amount of threes and out-rebounded their foes. If the Nuggets can do this, they’ll win most games. To do it without Murray and Gordon makes it extremely impressive and buds some hope that with time maybe the young players can step up to bake Denver a deep enough team for title contention.