Nikola Jokic chucks one high off the glass to beat the halftime buzzer for the Nuggets.
OKLAHOMA CITY — \u2014 The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> are a young, talented team on the rise. The defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets<\/a> showed them just how much work they have ahead to reach that elite level.
Nikola Jokic<\/a> had 28 points and 14 rebounds to help the Nuggets roll past the Thunder 128-95 on Sunday for their third straight win to open the season.
\u201cThey\u2019re defending champs, and they\u2019re not that by fluke,\u201d Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> said. \u201cThey play the right way on both ends of the floor and they are a really good basketball team. They came to play tonight. We weren\u2019t good enough to compete against them.\u201d
Michael Porter Jr<\/a>. had 20 points and nine rebounds and Jamal Murray<\/a> added 19 points and eight assists for the Nuggets, who shot 60.2% from the field.
Denver coach Michael Malone liked the energy the Nuggets brought.
\u201cWinning a championship, the one thing you worry about is thinking we can just show up this year and we\u2019re going to win,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not the case. This is a brand new season. What we did last year, although magical in nature, has nothing to do with this season. And I think our players, the way they\u2019re playing \u2014 it\u2019s very early \u2014 but after three games, our guys are playing with the requisite mindset that you need to if you\u2019re going to be a team that can try to win another championship.\u201d
Oklahoma City\u2019s Chet Holmgren<\/a> was the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft, but he missed last season with a foot injury. He got a loud cheer when he was introduced with the starters in his first regular-season home game and delivered a team-leading 19 points.
Gilgeous-Alexander, a first-team All-NBA selection last season, scored just seven points on 2-for-16 shooting. Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> was assigned to guard him.
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to credit guys like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who I think is an all-NBA defender,” Malone said. “You know, we asked him to guard the best players 82 regular season games and 20 playoff games last year and he\u2019s totally committed to that. He understands that that\u2019s his greatest gift to this basketball team.\u201d
The Nuggets held the Thunder to 41.1% shooting overall.
\u201cWe know that we have to be a team that can travel, beat the best teams in the NBA on the road,\u201d Malone said. \u201cAnd to do that, you have to bring the defense. And I felt our defense tonight was outstanding across the board.\u201d
Oklahoma City opened the season with road wins over Chicago and Cleveland and could have made an early statement with a win over Denver.
Jokic made sure that didn’t happen. The two-time MVP and 2023 Finals MVP dominated the first half. He had 22 points, including a layup at the buzzer, to give Denver a 69-51 edge at the break.
Holmgren scored 17 points in the first half. Gilgeous-Alexander went 0 for 9 from the field and had three points before the break.
UP NEXT
Nuggets: Host the Utah Jazz<\/a> on Monday.
Thunder: Host the Detroit Pistons<\/a> on Monday.
——
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

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Nikola Jokic chucks one high off the glass to beat the halftime buzzer for the Nuggets.OKLAHOMA CITY — \u2014 The Oklahoma City Thunder are a young, talented team on the rise. The defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets showed them just how much work they have ahead to reach that elite level. Nikola Jokic had 28 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n