Oklahoma City Thunder at Denver Nuggets: 2010-2011 Game 77 Preview; Defending the Division Crown

… with these teams playing each other 9 times over the next few weeks? These teams will be sick of each other.

and the NuggDoctor blog hasn’t been updated since last fall.

Forcing Turnovers, keeping the Ngugets out of the paint, and, most of all, getting great ball movement on offense with the only mistakes coming from Ibaka. Love it!

Three second violation….eh.

Let’s see if OKC can maintain the intensity

That did not look good for Mozgov

It kills me when teams blow 3 on 1 fast breaks. terrible spacing there, wasting the steal.

Here is at least one thing we’ve learned in these last 4 games – good defense always gives you a chance. Thunder were terrible in 2nd halves of last two, but b/c of their defense they still had a shot in the end.

Wow….two each for Perkins, Ibaka, and Harden.

1st time this half he looked like the evil Westbrook. tried to answer Lawson’s drive and drove on 3 guys, then picked up the foul.

Pure talent.

I think we’ll need bodyguards on the floor by the time this series is done.

That’s what Russ is going to do if the Thunder can’t figure out a way to stop Lawson’s drives. He’s going to keep doing that 3 on 1 drive stuff and it’s going to keep killing the team.

Especially if our final play was just a Westbrook coast-to-coast. I sure am glad we have a break…

Outscored 7-0 in last minute.

But even so, Thunder just held the league’s #1 offensive team to 47 first half points. That’s pretty darn good. They just need better offensive rotations in 2nd.

I honestly don’t know what they can do except pull him when he gets in this mode

Almost want to start hacking them….

Throw a giant cheeseburger at Brooks to get his attention.

3 on 2 break, and Westbrook still screws it up with the charge. He has completely lost his sense of what his job is.

At least the Nuggets still can’t make their free throws….

but after the last 2 games, that 3rd was 100% WIN for me. Thunder did well to hang in there and weather the storm.

Things are not looking good for the fourth at all.

PAINS me to say it, but Maynor came in for Westbrook when they were down 63-60, and they closed out the quarter on a 9-4 run.

Nuggets will pound it inside for the rest of the game.

Westbrook would have senselessly lost the ball. Or made an awesome play. But glad we’re playing it safe for the time being.

But you know what it is now? The Nuggets love to overplay on defense, and Maynor just doesn’t attack hard enough to allow the Nuggets to exploit him. He’s just nice and easy, and it neutralizes the Nuggets’ defensive athleticism.

AND SCENE!

i tihnk he gets into a better rhythm with Maynor out there

warms the very cockles of my heart. maybe even below the cockles. maybe even the colon. I’m not sure.

He responds with a sexy floater!

KMart is so limited offensively that it doesn’t hurt them, and it makes KMart move around a lot on defense with those surgically repaired knees

but neither have the Thunder. Just can’t miss these kinds of gimmes.

And Westbrook drills the 20 footer. Of course he does.

in about 4 seconds. some token resistance would be nice.

This will be so, so ugly during the playoffs.

Excellent recovery by the Thunder offense

Recap to be made after the Warriors game.

Thunder interior defense controlled Nene and Martin. Without those guys getting lots of putbacks, offensive rebounds, and easy scores, everything became guard-oriented for the Nuggets. As a result, Thunder controlled the boards, winning that battle by 9.

Durant – 9
Ibaka – 11
Perkins – 14

that’s the difference right there.