Three Takeaways From the OKC Thunder's Home Opener Loss to the Denver Nuggets

The Oklahoma City Thunder's undefeated start was spoiled by the reigning-champion Denver Nuggets in a poor offensive outing.

The Oklahoma City Thunder took a crushing 128-95 defeat to the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets in a disappointing home-opening performance. 

The Thunder won its first two games against the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers, heading into a difficult matchup with momentum. Things quickly turned south for Oklahoma City, falling behind 69-51 to Denver in the first half and never coming close to a lead in the second. 

It was an abysmal offensive showing from the 3-point line, just shooting 6-of-32 on the night collectively. Bright spots came in the form of rookie Chet Holmgren and Tre Mann, but a completely subpar performance from superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took Oklahoma City out of the game from the beginning. 

Let's dive into three lessons that can be learned from yesterday's game. 

Nuggets guard Jamal Murray shoots over Thunder guard Luguentz Dort / Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports

Don't Worry About Gilgeous-Alexander

In a rare underwhelming performance from Shai Gilgeous Alexander, the superstar guard only put up seven points, four rebounds and seven assists on a shockingly bad 2-of-16 shooting night. 

It just wasn't Gilgeous-Alexander's game, unable to find the vast majority of his shots through the net. Denver played him well defensively, but on several occasions it was just an uncharacteristic miss from a shot the guard typically makes. 

On the bright side, he shouldn't have a game nearly this bad for the rest of the season. The foul calls weren't there for a player that gets to the free-throw line more than anyone, which affected his ability to put up points. 

Looking forward to the next game and avoiding another poor performance, "Tomorrow I have to wake up the same as I would if I had a 20-for-21 type of game," Gilgeous-Alexander said. 

Holmgren's Putting it Together

In the first three games of Chet Holmgren's career, the rookie center has already shown impressive play on the offensive and defensive end. His performance against the Nuggets was another step forward in the rookie's early career progression.

Holmgren put up 19 points and four rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting against likely the best player in the entire NBA – Nikola Jokic. He went at the former MVP with aggression early on, not backing down from the formidable opponent. 

No player in the NBA can truly guard Jokic – as the center scored 28 points on 12-for-16 shooting yesterday – but Holmgren relatively held his own. The stats don't exactly show it, as Holmgren recorded zero blocks, but the rookie didn't look out of place on the court. 

Getting the experience of matching up with one of the league's biggest talents in just his third career game is massively important in getting the rookie settled into the NBA. Holmgren got his first look at Jokic, and will look forward to improving his performance in their next meeting.

"I personally have to be better," Holmgren said. "Obviously he's a great player, you can shrug it off, '2 time MVP player.' But you gotta take it to heart and figure out what you can do to be better." 

More Mann Minutes?

The player that took advantage of his minutes the most in the loss was guard Tre Mann. 

In just eight minutes of playing time, Mann scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. The guard looked confident in scoring the ball, utilizing his handles and quickness to get past Nuggets defenders with ease. 

For a player that struggled last season and had a questionable role with the team heading into the season, Mann has to maximize his minutes to gain a larger role in the rotation – which he did exactly. 

Mann's performance showed that he could be a useful offensive spark plug off the Thunder bench, especially with the shooting struggles that Isaiah Joe has dealt with in his first three games. Even if his scoring run took place in garbage time, no player showed as much promise and hustle as Mann had. 

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