OKC falls behind early as Denver cruises to a 126-96 win

For the 2020-2021 OKC Thunder, there haven’t been many starts like the one they had at home tonight. Despite a 14-20 record, the young Thunder have hung around against the NBA’s best, specifically with solid first-half performances. On Saturday night, they looked the part of a team on the second night of a back-to-back.

Tonight, the script was different. Denver (18-15) jumped on the Thunder out of the gate and took a 38-20 first quarter lead that they would never give up. The first three minutes and change saw the Nuggets put together a 13-0 run to build the lead they would hold all night. It was the usual suspects leading the way with Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Michael Porter Jr. finishing as the three leading scorers in limited minutes due to a blowout win.

All the Thunder could do after a slow start was try to get back in the game from behind the three-point line. Oklahoma City attempted a whopping 47 threes, making only 11. Compare that to Denver going 15-31 (48.4%) from distance, and you have a key difference on Saturday night. Despite the starting lineup struggling, second-year pro Darius Bazley had one of his better offensive nights of the year. Despite struggling with his efficiency this season, he went 8-16 from the floor to lead the way with 22 points.

Off the pine, Ty Jerome made the most of his second game healthy in OKC. After suffering an ankle injury in camp, Jerome finally made his Thunder debut on Friday and picked up where he left off in tonight’s loss. 15 pints and three made threes for the former Suns draft pick was one of the highlights on a night filled with lows.

The Thunder finally get some extended time off, as up next they travel to Dallas for a Wednesday night matchup