Sports Mole previews Thursday’s NBA clash between Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, including predictions, team news and form guides.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will be aiming to restore parity in their playoff series against the Denver Nuggets when the teams reconvene at PayCom Arena for Thursday’s Game Two.
Off the back of a thrilling victory in Tuesday’s opening clash, the away side have the opportunity to take a commanding 2-0 lead before the series returns to Denver from games three and four.
match preview
© Imago
Ten days on since they were last in action in the final episode of their round-one duel against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Oklahoma City Thunder headed into their second-round curtain-raiser against the Nuggets well rested and unsurprisingly made a flying start to proceedings.
Mark Daigneault‘s men went into the interval with a 10-point lead and looked set to come away with a victory, but Chet Holmgren‘s missed free throws late on kept the Nuggets in it before Aaron Gordon drilled a late three-pointer to stun the home crowd.
Despite seeing his 33-point, 10-rebound and eight-assist performance go down the drain, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander insisted there is no cause for alarm as his side look to bounce back from their first defeat of the ongoing playoffs.
Tuesday’s loss was only the fourth time in the last 23 outings that the Thunder, who finished the recently concluded regular season with the best defensive rating of 97.6, have given up more than 120 points in a match.
However, the Nuggets have been responsible for half of those, and Thursday’s hosts will need to rediscover their defensive frugality against the visitors if they are to come out on top here and level the series at one win apiece.
© Imago
In a game where both MVP candidates balled out, it was Nikola Jokic who came away with a hard-fought win 48 hours on since leading his team to a crunch Game Seven win over the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round.
Scoring just 50 points at the interval, David Adelman‘s men needed some time to get going and went on to tally 71 points in the second half to complete their eighth comeback in the last seven years while trailing by 14+ points in the final 24 minutes of a playoff game.
While Jokic will get most of the plaudits, and rightly so, for his 42 points, 22 rebounds and six assists in 42 minutes, Aaron Gordon was also instrumental for the Nuggets with a 22-point, 14-rebound double-double.
Gordon also hit the game-winning shot—his second of the playoffs so far—as the Nuggets won in Oklahoma for the second time since the turn of the year off the back of a 140-127 triumph back in March.
If Thursday’s visitors are to claim a third straight win in Oklahoma, they will need to trim down their sloppiness in possession, having recorded 18 turnovers last time out, nine more than their opponents.
Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Playoffs form:
Denver Nuggets NBA Playoffs form:
Team News
© Imago
Serbian international Nikola Topic is a guaranteed absentee for the Oklahoma City Thunder here having suffered a season-ending knee injury last year.
Ousmane Dieng continues to battle with a niggling calf problem which has seen him fail to feature for the home side since the middle of March, and it is unclear whether he will be fit enough to return at some stage during the playoffs.
Forward DaRon Holmes II will miss out once again for the Denver Nuggets due to an Achilles problem he suffered during July’s Summer League tournament.
Nikola Jokic will be looking to come up trumps once again having recently become just the fourth NBA player to record a 40/20/5 game in the playoffs after Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal and Giannis antetokounmpo.
Oklahoma City Thunder possible starting five:
Gilgeous-Alexander, there; Williams, Holmgren; Hard stone
Denver Nuggets possible starting five:
Murray, Braun; Porter Jr, Gordon; Jokic
We say: Thunder to win by 4+ points
The Thunder were left shell shocked by the final knockings of Game One but have an opportunity to deliver an instant response here.
We are backing the home side to come away with a victory to get themselves back on track.ID:571977:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:collect8451:
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