Thunder vs Nuggets preview: OKC looks to return to winning ways vs division rival

Oklahoma City Thunder vs Denver Nuggets

Tipoff: 9:30PM CST

Location: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

Broadcast: TNT

The Thunder are back in action after a sloppy loss to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday. Bereft of precision and discipline, OKC lost a winnable game against a team missing their all-star point guard in John Wall. Russell Westbrook struggled for most of the night, Steven Adams passed up wide open dunks, and Paul George nary touched the ball in the 4th quarter even though he had the hot hand all night.

OKC notoriously struggles when playing in Denver, and the Nuggets likely will view this game as a crucial stepping stone to climbing the playoff seedings. Westbrook has a thing against Denver, always seemingly more ticked off than normal, although we will always have this to remember Denver by:

Expect a rough 1st half as OKC tries to reestablish itself and a general attitude of, “OH, THE THIN AIR! We’d better not play defense tonight,” but in the end, hopefully some clutch play that keeps Nikola Jokic out of the lane and the Nuggets off the 3-point line. It’s the first of a back-to-back, and a focused showing tonight would go a long ways to distancing themselves in the seedings tonight against the Nuggets and tomorrow night vs the Pelicans.