Thunder vs Nuggets 2011 Playoffs Series Preview
Written by Jack Jones - Google +
In what is expected to be one of the most entertaining first-round series, the No. 4 seed Oklahoma City Thunder will do battle with the No. 5 seed Denver Nuggets. These are two teams that like to get up and down, so get ready for a plethora of points and a thrilling offensive series. Oklahoma City went 55-27 this season, while Denver finished with a 50-32 mark.
Taking a look at the season series, I find that the Thunder posted a 3-1 record against the Nuggets. You can almost throw out the first two meetings, which were each won by the home team. Each team looked a lot different than they do now due to trades. With the Northwest Division title still on the line, Oklahoma City was able to beat Denver 101-94 on the road on 4/5 and 104-89 at home on 4/8 earlier this month. The Thunder clearly looked like the superior team in both games, and the Nuggets are going to have to get a lot tougher in a short amount of time if they want to pull off the upset in this series.
Oklahoma City
The Thunder were a great team before making a trade that sent Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson. It shored up a huge weakness inside, and the Thunder have become a better team because of it. Perkins was even crying over the deal, but he quickly got over it and has been taking it out on opponents. The big man is averaging 5.1 PPG and 7.9 RPG since the trade, and the toughness he brings to Oklahoma City doesn’t show up in the box score.
Since Perkins joined the starting lineup, the Thunder rank only second to Chicago in defensive efficiency. Everyone wants to believe this is going to be a high-scoring series, but OKC won the two most recent meetings by an average score of 102.5 to 91.5. The Thunder rank fifth in the league in points (104.8) and eighth in rebounds (42.8). While they gave up 101.0 points per game which ranked 18th during the regular season, you can’t ignore how much their defense has improved since the Perkins deal.
Kevin Durant is having another MVP-caliber season and if not for Derek Rose, he may have won it. Durant is averaging 27.7 PPG on 46.2 percent shooting to go along with 6.8 RPG and an 88% average from the charity stripe. The Nuggets have had no answer for him in their two most recent meetings, as Durant has averaged 30.0 points on 45 percent shooting. Russell Westbrook is poised to become the best point guard in the league in the coming years. Westbrook averaged 21.9 points and 8.2 assists this season, and can get into the lane whenever he wants to.
Denver
There are no words to describe the coaching job George Karl has done since the Nuggets traded Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the New York Knicks. They got back a bunch of role players in exchange, with Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton and Timofey Mozgov coming over. The trade looked hugely in the Knicks’ favor, but their records since the trade have proven otherwise.
The Nuggets now have great team chemistry and purists everywhere would love to watch them play. Denver has an unprecedented eight players scoring in double-figures this season, led by Gallinari (14.7) and Nene (14.5). Arron Afflalo (12.6) has taken his game up a notch, and J.R. Smith (12.3) brings that energy off the bench. Ty Lawson averaged 15.8 points on 57.1 percent shooting and 4.8 assists against the Thunder this season.
For the Nuggets to have any chance in this series, Lawson and Felton must match the output the Thunder get from Westbrook. Denver leads the league in scoring (107.5), but are only 21st in defense (102.7). The Nuggets have been better defensively since the trade, but they have to find a way to get their effort on this end up to Oklahoma City’s level. After shooting 52 percent from the floor in their first two meetings, the Nuggets were held to only 42 percent shooting in their last two.
Series Prediction: Oklahoma City wins in 6 games
Got something to say?
