Expected problems plague Nuggets in brutal Opening Night loss

DENVER—Every expected problem that could come up with the Denver Nuggets was on display Opening Night against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

The Mile High hoopers struggled to shoot from deep, got negatives from the bench, couldn’t break free of OKC’s daunting perimeter defense and were out-classed athletically by the younger Thunder all the while Jamal Murray didn’t look himself. Everything Denver has lost and worried about since its title in June of 2023 was evident in the 102-87 shellacking dished out by last year’s top team in the West. They could’ve used Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s shooting, Jeff Green’s intangibles, Bruce Brown’s ballhandling and the trio’s energy. What Denver now turns to is a hodgepodge of young players in Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther surrounded by a former MVP failing to come to grips with his role and a backup big man who last featured in the playoffs four years ago. Meanwhile, Muray went a putrid 4-for-14 against the stifling OKC defense, held to just 12 points and four assists.

To say it’s an experiment at Ball Arena is too harsh—rather it’s a work in progress to supplement a cour of four with players who can step in and satisfy assignments. There will be progress and setbacks on this journey in the 2024-25 season but Thursday was certainly a low place to start. In fact, so down that it was the worst offensive performance by the Nuggets in Denver since Nikola Jokic’s rookie year.

“There’s not a need for panic,” head coach Michael Malone said after the game. “Going into the season, shooting is a concern of mine. Losing a guy like KCP, who is a 40% three-point shooter. I thought Christian Braun was great tonight but he is not going to be KCP, I think we all understand that, and embrace CB for who he is.”

To Malone’s point, Braun tied the team-high for points at 16 and snagged seven rebounds. His three triples that went off hurt but weren’t responsible for the downfall even with the Thunder’s lane clogging. In fact, CB was a team-best +8 when on the floor.

“I thought he played really good defense, competed, ran the floor, and I thought CB did a lot of really good things for us,” Malone kept on. “But no, there’s no panic again. I think the bigger question is, are we executing the way we need to? They double-teamed Nikola every time we touched it in the post. We saw that all postseason last year. Nikola had a triple-double so he’s making the right reads. One of the craziest stats tonight, we had 29 assists on 35 made field goals. That’s a ridiculous number. We’ll look at it and not panic, and then guys are open. We want them to shoot it, but you also have an opportunity to be aggressive and not settle. And I think there are some things that we can watch film of and try to be better at.”

Panic or not this is just who the Nuggets are this year and the roster they built compared to the Thunder, who are made to pretty much expose all of Denver’s shortcomings. The Nuggets shot the fewest threes in the NBA last season and it seemed like there was an effort to get some deep balls up. Denver got up to a big early lead, hitting two threes in the first part of the opening quarter. When the first whistle came and Denver turned to Westbrook and the bench, the Thunder went on a 21-5 run and never gave the lead back.

Westbrook was 2-for-10 with six points, five rebounds and five assists while being a team-worst -24 in his Nuggets debut.

But he wasn’t the lone Nuggets guard struggling Murray did too and many of their minutes came together.

“I think Russ and Jamal have a lot of potential to be really good together,” Malone said. “They look good in the preseason and practices and scrimmages, and I think the more they play together, the more comfortable they’re going to get playing off of each other. And again, I can help with that as well.”

Michael Porter Jr. also had a rough night on offense, scoring 15 points on 17 shots.

“When Jamal and Michael struggle to make shots like they did tonight, it’s going to be tough,” Malone said. “We’ve become so accustomed to both those guys shooting at such a high clip, and then now when you have both guys struggling in the same game, it makes it that much tougher. But it was, it was game one, some positives and a lot of, a lot of room to grow and improve upon.”

The Nuggets did hold the Thunder to 102 points, a mark they got over in 75 of their 82 games last season. OKC only shot 22% from three and Denver’s defense wasn’t always swarming. Nonetheless, the Nuggets did out-glass the smaller OKC by eight.

The Thunder are expected to be one of the best teams in the NBA this season and they were without both their starting and backup center in the game. Yet the three-time MVP wasn’t able to do much with that advantage because of the struggles around him. Instead, it was last year’s MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the contest with 28 points. While the performance from the Nuggets was bad, the Thunder are clearly in another class than Denver is right now and they did it without two key players.

The Nuggets will try again on Saturday when the Los Angeles Clippers visit Ball Arena. The last time the Nuggets made a change in their starting five to begin a season, they got crushed by the lowly Jazz—Denver won a title nine months later.