Michael Malone emphasized the importance of the “little things” after Sunday’s loss to OKC

The Denver Nuggets were in a great spot to pull off the road upset Sunday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

With 9:18 left in the game, Michael Porter Jr. made a 3-pointer to cut the Thunder lead to 94-91. The Nuggets weren’t able to get any closer after that as they lost 127-103.

“In that fourth quarter, [the Thunder] capitalized on every mistake we made,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said postgame. “To beat the No. 1 team in the west, you can’t play for three quarters. It’s going to take a 48 minute effort.”

After the Porter 3-pointer, the Nuggets made just four field goals the rest of the way as they were outscored 33-12 down the stretch.

Malone cited 50/50 balls (Oklahoma City grabbed 10 to Denver’s three), second-chance points (OKC had 16) and turnovers (OKC had 15 points off turnovers) as the little things that Denver could improve on. While the Nuggets only lost eight turnovers, the Thunder only lost five.

“The details matter. The little things matter when you’re playing against a team like that,” Malone said.

The details include being locked in 0n every defensive possession, and the Nuggets had their fair share of mental lapses. Porter is the scapegoat here, but multiple Nuggets had various defensive lapses at key moments.

Porter had fewer screw-ups on rewatch than I thought watching live but these 3 were killers:

1. Just lazy transition
2. 2 seconds on the clock, gets beat and fouls a non-scorer
3. Nail in the coffin possession pic.twitter.com/0dyQZ4nT8u

— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) March 10, 2025

A puzzling aspect of Sunday’s loss was Peyton Watson playing just six minutes. Yes, he’s young and it shows at times (i.e. when he left Kevin Durant wide open for the game-tying buzzer beater last week), but he is one of the Nuggets’ most talented players defensively and can make a large impact on that side of the ball, as shown by his game-sealing block against the Thunder earlier this year.

The little things are accomplished on the defensive side of the ball, and against a team like Oklahoma City that has a deep roster, the Nuggets will need every member of the rotation to be committed to doing those little things.

Related

Can a new building push the Broncos over the top?Pat Surtain II says ‘main goal’ is Super Bowl, but Broncos need to start fastDespite legal issues, Jonathon Cooper expected to report to campBroncos bring back assistant coach who was let go after being arrestedAre the Broncos going to face the real Patrick Mahomes or just what’s left of him?Report: Nuggets offer Peyton Watson way less money than Christian Braun