- Oklahoma City Thunder (7-0) at Denver Nuggets (4-3)
- When: Wednesday, 06 November 2024 at 8:00pm CST
- Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO
- Offensive Rating – DEN: 114.5 (7th) / OKC: 110.9 (19th)
- Defensive Rating – DEN: 113.0 (17th) / OKC: 93.8 (1st)
- Net Rating – DEN: 1.5 (11th) / OKC: 17.1 (1st)
- TV: FanDuel Sports Network – Oklahoma
The Set-Up
This is the second meeting of the season between these two division rivals. The Thunder won the first game 102-87 behind an incredible (and as we’ve come to expect) defensive effort. The Thunder have now won four straight meetings against the Nuggets dating back to last season.
Betting Info
- Line: OKC -7.5
- O/U: 223.5
Injury Report
OKC
- Isaiah Hartenstein – OUT (hand)
- Nikola Topic – OUT (knee)
- Jaylin Williams – OUT (hamstring)
- Kenrich Williams – OUT (knee)
DEN
- Vlatko Cancar – Doubtful (ankle)
- Aaron Gordon – OUT (calf)
- DaRon Holmes II – OUT (Achilles)
- Jamal Murray – OUT (concussion protocol)
Three Big Things
- Free Throws – Surprisingly, for a team featuring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder rank dead last in both free throw attempts and makes. If Oklahoma City is trying to emulate Boston’s style of offense, they are forgetting to allow the threat of 3-point shots set-up their ability to drive to the basket. SGA, usually a staple at the top of the drive per game stat, ranks 4th in drives at 19.4 drives per game. The “free throw merchant” is only averaging 5.7 free throw attempts per game in this early going. Jalen Williams is the next highest on the team at 2.6 FTA per game. While this has yet to be an issue for the team, free throw attempts and scoring were a major part of the Thunder’s game plan last season.
- Injured Animal – This game is good in testing the Thunder’s psyche. It’s human nature to look at your successes and wonder why you have to keep working so hard if you are going to succeed regardless. The Thunder find themselves facing an injured Denver squad that is missing two of their main components in Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon and likely looking to play in desperation mode in order to keep up in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. An injured animal is a dangerous one…unless the animal on the opposite side has a dangerous mindset also.
- Tired Chet – While Chet may be playing less minutes this season, he is shouldering a lot more of the load, especially as the defensive anchor on the best defense in the league. Add to that the fact that both his back-ups (Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams) are both out with injury, and you start to see why Holmgren is looking tired so early in the season. He has to guard the opposing team’s best big and usually, that involves a large discrepancy in mass and strength. He has held his own, don’t get me wrong. But he hasn’t had a chance to breathe early on in this season.