Keeler: Nuggets got cute. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Thunder punched them in the mouth

Sean Keeler, The Denver Post on Feb 2, 2026

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Flushing? Flushing would be too kind.

Burn it. Shred it. Nuke it. Most of all, learn from it. And the most important lesson should be this: Whatever David Adelman’s gameplan for the Nuggets was against Oklahoma City Sunday night should never, ever happen again.

Denver got cute. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got nasty. Cason Wallace got open. Lu Dort got open. Aaron Wiggins got open. Jaylin Williams got open. Isaiah Joe got open. Everybody got stinking open.

“There’s still four other guys (for the Thunder) up there that can hoop and shoot,” first-time All-Star Jamal Murray said after Denver dropped a home stinker to the Thunder, 121-111, at Ball Arena. “They made shots. They made more shots than us (Sunday). That’s all.”

OKC made 18 treys. With no Jaylen Wlliams. No Ajay Mitchell. No Alex Caruso. Adelman and the Nuggets gambled on smothering SGA, who got his (27 points, 12 assists) anyway.

Only sending the house at the OKC’s best player left gaping windows for everybody else on the perimeter. Whenever the Nuggets sold out to double Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder countered swing pass after swing pass that usually ended with an open man on the wing. OKC drained 10 treys (on 24 attempts) in the first half, while the Nuggets knocked down seven (on 17 tries).

The defending champs are“Howard The Duck” offensively and Moe Howard defensively. Flop on one end of the floor, slap on the other.

No Aaron Gordon, No Braun, you say. Did you see OKC’s rotation? No Jay-Dub. No Caruso. No Mitchell. As personnel absences go, call it a draw.

The Thunder, meanwhile, drew a line in the first period Sunday. The Nuggets rarely crossed it.

Murray was invisible (4 for 16 from the floor, 1 of 8 on treys) offensively and a step behind defensively most of the evening. Nikola Jokic (16 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, six turnovers), in just his second game back over the last four weeks, appeared to get gassed late.

It was a team stinker, though, and the man-for-man gap between the Nuggets and Thunder, Peyton Watson (29 points) notwithstanding, was maybe the most aggravating takeaway.

Denver’s second unit, the one that was supposed to shorten the gap between the Nuggets and Thunder, looked overmatched.

Through three quarters, the 6-7-8 player combo of Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Bruce Brown, the spine of the Bench Mob, were a combined 7 for 19 shooting, 2 for 6 from beyond the arc, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2-to-3. The Thunder’s 6-8 of Wiggins, Williams and Joe were 10 for 18 from the floor and seven for 13 on treys, with a ratio of 5-to-3.

“When you play a game like that, and you don’t have your top tier going,” Adelman mused, “you’re going to get beat.”

When the guys you cleared cap room for couldn’t close the gap on the reason — the Thunder’s depth — you acquired them, that’s gonna leave a mark.

The Nuggets went 16 times in the first two-and-a-half quarters. They made 10 and missed six. The Thunder knocked won 10 of their first 11. Fine margins catch up with you.

Even the hustle plays early went askew. With 3:22 left in the first quarter, Nuggets plugger Spencer Jones won a mad scramble for the defensive board under the Thunder’s hoop while falling backward in the paint. So as not to get the travel call, he shoveled the rock wildly.

Only a heads-up effort turned into a Jarrett-Stidham-esque chest pass at the end, one that missed a nearby Valanciunas entirely and landed in the arms of OKC’s Kenrich Williams. The Thunder guard couldn’t believe his fortune, drained the bunny from about 12 feet out and got fouled in the process.

It was that kind of night. It was that kind of statement. The Nuggets and Thunder next meet again in OKC on Feb. 27. We’ll find out then just how well Adelman got the message.

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