Oklahoma City Thunder Rocked By Denver Nuggets in Home Opener

Oklahoma City had no answer for Denver's elite offense in Sunday afternoon's blowout loss.

It was all Denver all afternoon long. The Nuggets walloped the Thunder 128-95 in Oklahoma City's highly anticipated home opener. 

The loss drops the Thunder to 2-1, while Denver moves to an undefeated 3-0.

Denver has the title of reigning champions for a reason. The savvy, veteran group led by Nikola Jokic is hard to slow down, and Oklahoma City's outside shooting was simply no match.

Jokic led the Nuggets offensively, finding any shot he wanted on the floor. He welcomed Chet Holmgren to the NBA, pouring in 28 points and 14 rebounds on 12-of-16 shooting. Jokic's kick outs were equally as effective, setting up wide open 3-pointers for his teammates.

Michael Porter Jr. was the main beneficiary of Jokic's passing clinic, draining four triples for 20 total points.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled to find any rhythm on Sunday, coming back down to earth with seven points on 2-of-16 shooting.

Chet Holmgren was the Thunder's main source of offense, adding 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Jalen Williams chipped in 13, while Josh Giddey contributed nine.

Cason Wallace was a small bright spot for the Thunder, adding seven points, three rebounds and a block.

Oklahoma City’s first half was nothing short of abysmal. The Thunder hung around for much of the second quarter, keeping it within single digits at times, but Jokic had his way.

Going into the halftime break, Denver built a 69-51 lead on the Thunder. Jokic was completely disregarding the Thunder defense and finding any shot he wanted on the offensive end. Denver finished the half shooting 53.8% from the floor and out-rebounded the Thunder 30-to-16.

On the offensive end, there wasn’t much to be excited about either. Oklahoma City shot just 40% from the floor and 12.5% from 3-point range. Holmgren was the only positive, pouring in a career-high 17 points in 16 minutes.

Gilgeous-Alexander had one of the slowest halves of his Thunder tenure, scoring just three points on 0-of-9 shooting. He was a minus-18 in 16 minutes.

Giddey drilled a triple with 8:02 left in the third quarter to trim Denver’s lead to 75-62. The Nuggets responded with a quick 5-0 run, though, evening up the frame and pushing the lead right back to 18 points. Oklahoma City couldn’t find a way to string multiple stops together and fight back.

Denver pulled away towards the end of the quarter, winning the frame 28-24 and extending the massive halftime lead.

The Nuggets bench worked the Thunder over in the fourth quarter, leaving no reason to bring the starters back in. It was an all around dominating performance.

Oklahoma City is back in action Monday night against the Detroit Pistons.

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