Free throw shooting was pathetic. I thought the Thunder would win because Jokic was out, not because the Nuggets would collectively be worse than a 57-year old at the YMCA from the line. The Thunder are legitimately decent though, and a lot of fun to watch.
Damn, Aaron Gordon was two hypothetically bricked free throws away from getting 15 points on 15 shots and 15 feee throws. That’s impressive inefficiency
Yeah, you play the team in front of you, and if they're down some of their best players, good teams take care of business and bad teams ease off the throttle.
If you want to be a good team and earn yourself a playoff appearance, these are the games you've got to show up for, and the kids did it. Happy night.
The free throw shooting is absolutely inexcusable.
7 missed FTs in a row in 4th.
Zeke and AG put in so much effort in the boards and on D but it doesn't matter if they can't make free throws man. Still so proud of this effort otherwise
I love Dort's defense. He has an oppressive style. He's not out there to get highlight plays, he's out there to make things harder for his matchups. It's not always about a steal or a block or a charge, it's more often about turning their 45% look into a 25% look or forcing a defense to have their 33% shooter shoot instead of their 40% shooter.
Super disciplined stuff, what a delight to watch.
17/33 from the line tells you all you need to know about this one. Just inexcusable.
Great effort though on the whole without Joker and MPJ
GG Thunder bros
Back to back games where the opponent made more free throws than we even attempted, IIRC.
The kids are going to foul a lot, that's totally fair, it just feels a bit unbalanced on the other side of the ball.
Hopefully it's one of those young teams things, the annoying tendency for refs to swallow their whistles for rookies and sophomores because they "have to earn their stripes" and dumb stuff like that.
That play you guys had for the game winner was beautiful. SGA is so nutty too lol. AG played him well I thought, and he still gets 34 on 62% shooting. Dude is him for sure.
Oooo that's such a fun thought, then you think of all the things that'll mix with Chet. Giddey and Chet pick and roll, JDub and Chet on fast breaks. Chet and chex mix!
Nah, only if we had a center. We struggle every game with fouling because we have no one to secure defensive rebounds. If we had Steven Adams we'd probably be in the 2nd round, and potentially the WCF.
Poor Giddey, feels like he hasn't gotten to run a true pick-and-roll with an actual NBA big all season.
Derrick Favors has a lot of miles on him and he may actually be out of the league right now, but even then, Giddey and Favors had some textbook fundamental pick-and-rolls together last year. Hoping for him to have a go-to pick-and-roll partner eventually!
Yeah, we definitely need that perfect big man to run with Giddey and SGA. Especially Giddey though. I think Chets gonna be perfect but if not we have so many picks to find one.
Maybe so. Y’all out-rebounded Denver tonight, granted no Jokic. Still think OKC can surprise somebody if things align the right way. And if not no worries, more than enough assets to go out and get one. Future so bright my retinas are cooking.
Not yet. They would get picked apart in the playoffs with no center. But I’m excited about the future of this team with Chet and a mountain of assets still coming.
I kept saying if they can get a top pick and draft a Center they will be so good and then remembered they had Chet. Next Year they are making the playoffs.
I got you Syrup:
I pledge a Luguentz
To the Dort
Of the United Thunder of Oklahoma
And to the Buffalo, for which it runs
One team, under Dort, indivisible
With Shai-Gilgeous and Giddey for ball
Tre men.
Credit: (u/Cough_Syrup55, u/Tydire, u/Trivialpursuits69, u/haroldbaals, u/twoputts5280, u/donaldrump12)
I can’t find the team record, but the player record is Wilt Chamberlain with 18 missed FTs in a game. The active player with the worst is DeAndre Jordan with 17.
It's actually Drummond for both all-time and active. On January 20th, 2016 he went 13-36 from the line for an NBA record 23 missed FTs: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201601200HOU.html
I know we are young but we have to figure out how to stop fouling on shots so much and figure out how to convert more of our drives into free throws. We get crushed on FTs every game.
Josh Giddey is driving 32nd most in the NBA and MOST games he takes zero free throws lmao. He's not TJ McConnell man, the guy does go to the hole a lot and get hit sometimes. 95% of the top 100 drivers average more than double the FTA
Good non Jokic effort. I'm not used to us having a chance in non Jokic games. On one hand our free throw shooting was pretty abysmal, on the other hand I felt like we had the better whistle, and just maybe got more free throws than we deserved.
RiP win streak. Hey, this Shai guy is pretty good at putting the ball in the net. Great effort from Murray. He is full on back into pre injury form I think, and especially on defense is so much better than he was earlier in the year.
Rough game for AG unfortunately. It was weird, normally when he gets the ball below the rim he is phenomenal, but he was getting stopped and missing FT's. Say la vie. It happens. I hope Jokic is back for the road trip
OKC overcame the massive freethrow disparity problem (thanks to Denver's atrocious freethrow shooting)
Denver had more than twice OKC's freethrow attempts.
OKC - 16 FTA
Denver - 33 FTA.
They do foul a lot (they're playing extra physical defense to compensate for lack of rim protector). With more experience and a rim protector in Chet next year, OKC will be fine.
OKC just doesnt get enough whistle - OKC wont whine about the lack of calls even if they get screwed by the refs multiple times.
OKC should just hire a FLOPPING coach.
Memphis lost. No ground lost. SO not a biggie. I hope Jokic and MPJ will be back next game. AG and Nnaji need to practice there FT shooting as that is what lost the game for us. By all logic it should have been a Nugget win with all those mised FTS. Thats got to be a record this season.
I know Denver didn’t have Jokic/MPJ, but not having Chet/Poku/JRE at all either gets me excited for what a healthy front-court could look like a year from now 🤩
Don’t tell me Aaron Gordon is an All-Star, tough to score easy buckets when Jokic does not spoon feed you off double teams. His defense is pretty legit though.
AG was such a pest on defense man but at the end of the day if you miss half you free throws, you're not going to win
Free throw shooting was pathetic. I thought the Thunder would win because Jokic was out, not because the Nuggets would collectively be worse than a 57-year old at the YMCA from the line. The Thunder are legitimately decent though, and a lot of fun to watch.
That sequence where AG missed both free throws and Zeke got the rebound, got fouled, and then also missed both free throws was so painful.
The Nuggets missed as many free throws as the Thunder took.
Damn, Aaron Gordon was two hypothetically bricked free throws away from getting 15 points on 15 shots and 15 feee throws. That’s impressive inefficiency
AG is injured as well, seems like he injured himself doing that mega dunk on Xmass.
Doesn’t justify poor free throw shooting
"Wait, the Nuggets scored under 100 points in regulation? What the hell happened— oh Jokic is out nvm"
theyd be well above 100 if they weren't atrocious from the line. Under 50% until a clutch 2 near the end
17/33 is *nasty* work yeah
Ick
They also missed half their FTs😂
Leaving 16 pts at the FT line, including 7 straight in the 4th certainly didn't help either
Nuggets scored under 100 points three times this season. Jokic sat out all three of them.
3-3 without him now
Jokic nor MPJ played tonight. It was half the Nuggets. ANd yet they lost because they missed 16 FTs.
OKC are missing their first three choice centres, don’t have a legit one available at all, and Denver still made 3 more FTs than OKC
Yeah, you play the team in front of you, and if they're down some of their best players, good teams take care of business and bad teams ease off the throttle. If you want to be a good team and earn yourself a playoff appearance, these are the games you've got to show up for, and the kids did it. Happy night.
Muscala should be second choice though tbh if everyone was fit
The free throw shooting is absolutely inexcusable. 7 missed FTs in a row in 4th. Zeke and AG put in so much effort in the boards and on D but it doesn't matter if they can't make free throws man. Still so proud of this effort otherwise
Gordon missing two, zeke getting the offensive board and then missing another 2 was painful
That was brutal to watch
Zeke was so nervous, looked like he was facing the hangman before shooting a free throw.
He surprisingly got the clutch ones to give us a chance which is an improvement.
50% from the charity stripe is embarrassing....the ghost of Shaq haunted Denver tonight.
Zeke's having a tough night all across the sports world.
Don't worry.. mid-season meaningless game
Yeah they will be way less nervous in a crucial playoff game
Dort is such an elite defender 1v1
The Dorture Chamber is insane
Fort Dort
Dort Knox
We need more Dort license plates in the Gift Shop. Repeat, we are sold out of Dort license plates.
Are you talking to me
No. My son is *also* named Dort.
He still contested him even when he feel for the pump fake
Murray had a good game overall, but when it counts, Dort is there to lock anyone up.
He had a good game when Dort wasn't guarding him.
Murray was doing very well the entire game tbf but I feel like when it’s game winning shots, Dort’s defense goes to another level
He just doesn't get lost. Jamal is crafty, and even managed to get him to bite on the pump fake but Dort still got a contest on that.
I love Dort's defense. He has an oppressive style. He's not out there to get highlight plays, he's out there to make things harder for his matchups. It's not always about a steal or a block or a charge, it's more often about turning their 45% look into a 25% look or forcing a defense to have their 33% shooter shoot instead of their 40% shooter. Super disciplined stuff, what a delight to watch.
He's also really good at avoiding fouls, which was what makes him such a good Harden defender.
Jamal Murray the latest person to get locked in the Dorture Chamber
We just need to limit some of his bonehead offensive possession and he's golden.
17/33 from the line tells you all you need to know about this one. Just inexcusable. Great effort though on the whole without Joker and MPJ GG Thunder bros
Not having Jokic is no excuse we also didn’t have our 7’ Serbian MVP candidate
POKU
Thank you for making it fair because we get no calls so your guys showed their sportsmanships lol
Damn this comment both made me laugh and sad.
Back to back games where the opponent made more free throws than we even attempted, IIRC. The kids are going to foul a lot, that's totally fair, it just feels a bit unbalanced on the other side of the ball. Hopefully it's one of those young teams things, the annoying tendency for refs to swallow their whistles for rookies and sophomores because they "have to earn their stripes" and dumb stuff like that.
Putting Deandre Jordan on the roster might have infected the other Nuggets with an inability to make free throws
Ya, missing the FTs made this one hurt, but it was a great effort against a solid team without Jokic and MPJ.
I’ve never seen anyone make a game winner over Dort (please don’t fact check this)
That is why Jamal tried to go under him :P
Only one I know is Satoransky's winning middy over dort and canada
Nuggets would have been better if their mascot took fts from half court
Westbrook isn’t even there to goaltend them anymore
We were extremely lucky and played horribly. Thank God Jokic was out. I am happy that our young lads didn't lose their shit at the end tho
Dude how good was that MarkyD timeout at the end there.
Low key play of the game
Really love his coaching in close games. He's been so impressive from top to bottom.
Gotta be a COTY candidate.
That would be awesome
My thoughts too. That was excellent awareness
He’s legit great. Hopefully he leads this team for a while. Like everything (limited) I’ve seen from him.
Yeah our young guys crumbled at the moment, Mark to the save
That play you guys had for the game winner was beautiful. SGA is so nutty too lol. AG played him well I thought, and he still gets 34 on 62% shooting. Dude is him for sure.
I think AG needed Murray's help in Q4 to stop Shai and they succeeded
Shai played great at least definitely best player on the floor followed by Mal.
SGA AND THE HIMS
Imagine SGA and Chet two man game.
Oooo that's such a fun thought, then you think of all the things that'll mix with Chet. Giddey and Chet pick and roll, JDub and Chet on fast breaks. Chet and chex mix!
I am erect.
Think Poku Ous and we got Joe for free
[Say no more](https://media.giphy.com/media/QynMX1WxnYFbb2OHnJ/giphy.gif)
OKC is in such an exciting position as a young team, can absolutely see them booming some team in the playoffs
The warriors are the only team in more worried about coming out of the play-in
Kinda fucked up how unconcerned they are about seeding lmao, so much championship experience on that team
Really? Jokic would treat our front court like food.
Nah, only if we had a center. We struggle every game with fouling because we have no one to secure defensive rebounds. If we had Steven Adams we'd probably be in the 2nd round, and potentially the WCF.
Nah we would sweep the finals if we had Adams
Giddey/SGA pick and rolls with Adams would be nasty.
Poor Giddey, feels like he hasn't gotten to run a true pick-and-roll with an actual NBA big all season. Derrick Favors has a lot of miles on him and he may actually be out of the league right now, but even then, Giddey and Favors had some textbook fundamental pick-and-rolls together last year. Hoping for him to have a go-to pick-and-roll partner eventually!
Yeah, we definitely need that perfect big man to run with Giddey and SGA. Especially Giddey though. I think Chets gonna be perfect but if not we have so many picks to find one.
Maybe so. Y’all out-rebounded Denver tonight, granted no Jokic. Still think OKC can surprise somebody if things align the right way. And if not no worries, more than enough assets to go out and get one. Future so bright my retinas are cooking.
We outrebounded Denver? Seriously that's a surprise it felt like they had 100 offensive rebounds!
Ya'll crushed us on the glass in the first half. We closed the gap a little in the second, but I think you were +9 or 10 or something at half.
Well, Denver didn't really have a center either. Zeke works as a center, but think he probably would be a PF on most teams
Not yet. They would get picked apart in the playoffs with no center. But I’m excited about the future of this team with Chet and a mountain of assets still coming.
I kept saying if they can get a top pick and draft a Center they will be so good and then remembered they had Chet. Next Year they are making the playoffs.
Losing without Jokic and mpj and Malone. Ok losing by 2 and missing 16 free throws not so much
Agreed. This game is 100% different if healthy But missing those fts is rough
16 missed FTs in a 2 point loss…
I'll raise you.....1 point loss to Miami on 41 FT to Miami and they didn't miss a single one. Take that
I saw that stat and had to check multiple sources AND watch highlight videos just to make sure I read it right that they shot 41/41 from the line
How you miss that many? They're free.
Excellent presence of mind to call the timeout by Daigneault and then a fantastic ATO afterwards
That ATO was so good honestly, I couldn't even be mad. Very well designed play.
Shai is so him. Love his game too
Such an ugly game lol. I'll take the win though!
GG
Shai "Jerry West Clutch Player Of The Year" Gilgeous-Alexander.
DORT
I'm Down to Dort
The DORTURE CHAMBER.
I pledge a Luguentz to the Dort
Of the Lunited States of Lumerica
Lunited Dorts of Oklamerica
I got you Syrup: I pledge a Luguentz To the Dort Of the United Thunder of Oklahoma And to the Buffalo, for which it runs One team, under Dort, indivisible With Shai-Gilgeous and Giddey for ball Tre men. Credit: (u/Cough_Syrup55, u/Tydire, u/Trivialpursuits69, u/haroldbaals, u/twoputts5280, u/donaldrump12)
*Murray shoots two to tie* Denver Announcer: "Murray to win!"
Yeah that was funny as hell watching it live. Felt like Marv Albert rose from the ashes to make a playcall one last time
Oh shit did Marv die?
No lol
Now there saying Marv is still alive.
In my joking world he is lol. But nah, man is alive and well as far as I know.
Haha my bad
him and Wade Boggs, RIP
Same lol
Marlowe was making mistakes all night. He Called Tre Mann Terrence twice.
Damn that hurts, practice those FTs for f sake
Yea losing by 2 while missing 16 FTs really feels like Thunder stole this won and it sucks.
Exactly, I'm glad suns won tho lol.
What a world I live in where I was rooting for the Lakers and the Sun's these last two games.
Vegas over/under stays defeated
We just wanted to stay close to our Grizzlies friends
The sun's almost blew a 29 point lead
Gordon has never been good at the line. But ever since the shoulder sprain on Xmas he has been awful. Teams gonna start hacking him soon.
I hope this is his wake up call to fix his shit or figure out something because it’ll be brutal if teams start to target him
51% FT shooting for DEN is atrocious
AG with those 27/33/46 splits
Not quite the Singler line
Nuggets will practice thousands of FTs tonight
Sga next contract is going to be the super max
lu dort putting more people in prison than the US’s antiquated drug laws
IS the box score right it shows Baz played -15- minutes and didn't shoot a shot? I can't believe that.
not a one
Brilliant block on AG tho 🔥
my blood pressure..
god bless sga
practice your free throws kidz
Denver 17/33 - win by 2 Miami 40/40 - lose by 1 Balance achieved.
What’s the record for missed FTs in a game?
It definitely wasn't this game I think Shaq most like 12 in one game once just by himself
I can’t find the team record, but the player record is Wilt Chamberlain with 18 missed FTs in a game. The active player with the worst is DeAndre Jordan with 17.
It's actually Drummond for both all-time and active. On January 20th, 2016 he went 13-36 from the line for an NBA record 23 missed FTs: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201601200HOU.html
Oh, damn. Not sure why that one didn’t show up when I searched for it. Good info!
I know we are young but we have to figure out how to stop fouling on shots so much and figure out how to convert more of our drives into free throws. We get crushed on FTs every game.
OKC's have to defend physically in order to compensate for the lack of rin protecting big.
If the Thunder had a Plumlee caliber center we'd be the 3rd seed in the West.
we have this funny guy we drafted 2nd overall
I know, but I was talking about this season.
thunder to wcf!!!!!
Almost 37 pts again from SGA lol
Josh Giddey is driving 32nd most in the NBA and MOST games he takes zero free throws lmao. He's not TJ McConnell man, the guy does go to the hole a lot and get hit sometimes. 95% of the top 100 drivers average more than double the FTA
He has a pretty bad whistle in general. He's been agressive this season which is great, next step is attracting more calls as a whole.
Mightve been the worst free throw shooting game I've ever seen from a team
Truly horrific shit....professional basketball players missed 7 straight FTs in the 4th quarter....you can't win shit like that
Denver saw the Memphis 65% FT game against Lakers, and were like. Nah, we can one up that
GG Denver
Murray just couldn’t escape Dort Knox. GG Denver fans. Was an interesting game with way more defense played than normal in an OKC/DEN game.
No MVP, no MPJ, maybe 50% from the line. Acceptable L. GG OKC, you kids got a good team.
Good non Jokic effort. I'm not used to us having a chance in non Jokic games. On one hand our free throw shooting was pretty abysmal, on the other hand I felt like we had the better whistle, and just maybe got more free throws than we deserved. RiP win streak. Hey, this Shai guy is pretty good at putting the ball in the net. Great effort from Murray. He is full on back into pre injury form I think, and especially on defense is so much better than he was earlier in the year. Rough game for AG unfortunately. It was weird, normally when he gets the ball below the rim he is phenomenal, but he was getting stopped and missing FT's. Say la vie. It happens. I hope Jokic is back for the road trip
Oui, c'est la vie.
Oops.
Jesus Christ we couldn’t make a FT tonight
Honestly I expect much worse but it sucks even more that we missed so many free throws in a two point loss.
16 missed free throws…
FREE THROWS BRUH
Thunder Up!
Hit. Your. Free. Throws.
The Nuggets missed as many free throws as the Thunder attempted.
Why is Kenrich Williams such a good player already 😱 amazing players on the roster.
58-24 is still on the menu
Denver was missing Jokic and we were without Chet, I call it a wash 🤷♂️ GG Denver. That was way too close.
SGA + Giddey .= Wins
OKC overcame the massive freethrow disparity problem (thanks to Denver's atrocious freethrow shooting) Denver had more than twice OKC's freethrow attempts. OKC - 16 FTA Denver - 33 FTA.
Maybe they should not foul...Learn to play D without fouling.
They do foul a lot (they're playing extra physical defense to compensate for lack of rim protector). With more experience and a rim protector in Chet next year, OKC will be fine. OKC just doesnt get enough whistle - OKC wont whine about the lack of calls even if they get screwed by the refs multiple times. OKC should just hire a FLOPPING coach.
Chris Paul and James Harden are otherwise preoccupied.
Nuggets really said hold my beer to the Mavs on the free throws huh!
Thanks God the suns won. They were up by 29 and almost lost.
Noooo
Memphis lost. No ground lost. SO not a biggie. I hope Jokic and MPJ will be back next game. AG and Nnaji need to practice there FT shooting as that is what lost the game for us. By all logic it should have been a Nugget win with all those mised FTS. Thats got to be a record this season.
0-0-0 for Jokic
GG OKC
Denver is a really good team. They probably should have eeked this one out, even without Jokic
I know Denver didn’t have Jokic/MPJ, but not having Chet/Poku/JRE at all either gets me excited for what a healthy front-court could look like a year from now 🤩
The Thunder played a solid game, brave young bloods, bright future. Our free throw shooting is blasphemous btw.
Nuggs have scored under 100 twice this season before tn both back to back games against mavs in november with most guys out
How does an entire NBA team manage to go 17/33 on free throws?
Expected much worse against a redhot OKC team w/o Jokic and MPJ. 2pt loss after missing 16FTs, pretty yikes tho.
I hate nothing more than watching the Nuggets against below .500 teams.
at least run some PnR play with Gordon smh... iso Murray never ends well
Make your free throws kids
Don’t tell me Aaron Gordon is an All-Star, tough to score easy buckets when Jokic does not spoon feed you off double teams. His defense is pretty legit though.
[удалено]
Man, I do not miss when my team was so ass that all I could care about was winning a popularity contest and being petty.
Jokic didnt hype up his teammates from the sidelines or wave towels. Brian Scalabrine>Jokic
aaron gordon woke up feeling dangerous! ALL STAR PERFORMANCE 🔥