Denver Nuggets edge out Oklahoma City Thunder 106 – 101 despite Kevin Durant’s 32 – NBA Recap
The Denver Nuggets secured an important win against the Oklahoma City Thunder in a closely contested game on Wednesday. The game at the Chesapeake Energy Arena was closely fought but the Nuggets had just enough in the tank to see off Oklahoma City in the
end for a 106 – 101 win.
Nuggets have now won 7 of their last 9 games in the NBA and look to be in pole position for the 6th spot in the Western Conference. That would lead to a matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of playoffs. Nuggets coach George Karl
was understandably pleased with the effort of his side.
"We're playing our best basketball right now (seven wins in the last nine games) and to do this in the month of April shows our guys have a pretty big heart."
Thunder head coach Scott Brooks on the other hand congratulated the Nuggets on the win. His side put in a decent effort, but were not able to make it past the finish line in the end.
"Denver did a good job of establishing their pace and we allowed too many offensive rebounds and turned the ball over too much in the first quarter. After that we settled down, but it was a tough game and a tough loss."
Kevin Durant put in a valiant effort for the Thunder as he led the attack, scoring game high 32 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Livewire point guard Russell Westbrook was also in superb form, scoring 30 points, dishing out 9 assists and grabbing
6 boards. Serge Ibaka also managed 15 points.
While the Thunder only had 3 players in double figures, the Nuggets had 7. Top on the list was point guard Ty Lawson, who scored 25 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Kenneth Faried had 13, Arron Afflalo had 15 while Danilo Gallinari managed 14.
The game got off to a racy start and both teams played all out offense in the first quarter. The high scoring period was a delight for the fans and the Nuggets looked dangerous, scoring a whopping 36 points in contrast to 30 by OKC.
The second segment was more even. Neither side was able to get n advantage over the other, therefore the status quo remained at the end of the first half, score 64 – 58.
The home team were better coming out of the interval. The defence visibly improved and the high flying Nuggets were restricted to just 16 points. On the other hand, OKC scored 24 and took the lead heading into the final 12 minutes at 82 – 80.
A game was extremely close throughout the last frame and with just under 3 minutes remaining the score was 100 – 99 to Denver. The Nuggets though made some big shots at the end, while Westbrook and Derek Fisher missed key ones for the Thunder, handing Denver
the 106 – 101 win.
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