Nuggets Narrowly Outpaced by Thunder at Paycom Center
The Denver Nuggets, with a record of 33-16, faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who held a slightly better record of 33-15. In a closely contested match that saw both teams fighting for dominance, the final score read 105-100 in favor of the home team.
The Nuggets started strong with an impressive first quarter lead scoring 28 points to the Thunder's 19. However, as the game progressed, their performance fluctuated. The second quarter saw them adding only 23 points to their tally while allowing the Thunder to gain ground with 28 points. The third quarter was even less favorable for Denver as they managed just 21 points compared to Oklahoma City's 26. Despite rallying in the fourth quarter and matching their first-quarter performance with another 28 points, it wasn't enough to secure victory.
Denver's defense was on display as they blocked nine shots and recorded seven steals throughout the game. Offensively, they were able to assist on 21 occasions but struggled with field goal accuracy shooting only at a rate of forty percent from the field and sixty-nine percent from the free-throw line. From beyond the arc, they fared better hitting fifteen out of thirty-seven attempts which translated into forty percent three-point shooting.
The bench contributed significantly scoring thirty-three points but it was overshadowed by Oklahoma City's bench who put up thirty-eight points. The Nuggets also capitalized on second-chance opportunities scoring twenty out of fifteen attempts which is fifty-three percent efficiency in this aspect.
Despite these efforts and leading for over half an hour during playtime while establishing a biggest lead of thirteen at one point in time; it wasn't sufficient against a resilient Thunder team that managed fifty percent more fast break points than Denver did (fifteen versus twelve) and dominated inside by scoring fifty paint-points.
Looking ahead for fans of Denver Nuggets: The next challenge will be hosting Portland Trail Blazers at Ball Arena located in Denver on February second at six o'clock PM Mountain Time Zone (MT). This encounter can be watched live on ALT network channel six hundred eighty-one or ROOT Sports NW channels six hundred eighty-seven and six hundred eighty-seven-one for those following away from home.