Murray and Jokic boss SGA, Nuggets best OKC in their barn

The best duo to ever take the hardwood for the Denver Nuggets stormed into neighboring Oklahoma and took the West’s best team’s dinner on Monday, winning 140-127.

Charged by Jamal Murray and carried by Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets got their lick back on the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was a night of slick shooting from three, Murray magic and Jokic’s MVP-level dominance as Denver went blow-for-blow on offense in Oklahoma before going nuclear in the fourth in a turn of events to Sunday’s brunch battle.

“Big-time response anytime you go against No. 1 team in the West,” Michael Malone said postgame Monday. “I told our guys, ‘I know the fourth quarter didn’t go our way, but we did a lot of good things yesterday. We just have to close the 48 minutes,’ I thought we did that today. We tried some different things, defensively, that I thought were really impactful, but this was a you talk about everybody contributing. This was everybody stepping up and making big plays.”

The Nuggets were out-scored by 21 in the fourth quarter in the first game but responded to take the final frame 39-28 in the second contest. Denver shot so well in the period that they didn’t miss a deep ball until OKC’s subs were in—finishing 18-for-32 from three. The shooting propelled the Nuggets to score more points against the Thunder than anyone else has this season.

It was Jokic’s hyper-efficient 35 points on 15-of-20 shooting to go with 18 rebounds, eight assists and two stocks with just one turnover that completely out-classed fellow MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Nuggets stifled the Canadian, keeping the ball out of his hands and forcing his teammates to step up–SGA finished below his averages with 25 points, seven assists and three rebounds. But it wasn’t just Jokic out-playing SGA; so too did fellow Ontarian Jamal Murray, who torched for 31 points, six assists and two steals as one of the many Denver players to cash multiple shots from distance.

But the biggest win of the season for the Nuggets, which secured the team sole possession of second place in the West with the Lakers loss on Monday, almost never happened.

“He won’t tell you this, so I will,” Malone said of Jokic, who was on the injury report pregame with multiple issues. “I hit him up yesterday after the game, trying to bring up a conversation about maybe we take tomorrow’s game off. I gave him the minutes: 45 minutes, 41 minutes, 39 minutes, 38 minutes, with a really bad ankle and an elbow. This is not a rest game. This guy is beat up with 18 games to go.”

“And what I love about Nikola, he was like, ‘Hell, no! Come on, man, coach, I’m playing. That’s not even a conversation. Am I tired? Sure, everybody’s tired. Am I a little beat up? Sure, everybody’s a little beat up, but I want to play.’ And I think part of that was also we lost, and he wanted to lead this team and find a way to come in here and get a win today. The guy is just incredible. So as I say all the time, man, I’m very thankful that he’s in a Nuggets uniform because you’re watching greatness every single night.”

Jokic played a more steady game but was in foul trouble early because Denver’s defensive scheme was allowing Isaiah Hartenstein to cook. But that slowed down a lot as the contest went on. Across the court, the Thunder again tried to swarm the paint because of Jokic, opening up some shots for Murray, who played well for a second straight day, but, this time, he connected on more shots. That shifted focus onto the duo, allowing Denver to get plenty of open looks, where they cashed 18-of-their-32 looks from three. Every Nuggets player who got action, but Jokic and backup center Zeke Nnaji, hit at least two deep balls. Michael Porter Jr. scored 17 points, Peyton Watson 16 and Christian Braun 14—as the latter two led the Nuggets SGA-slowing defense—often doubling the guard.

It was Watson’s best game since coming back from nearly a month down with an injury, and it was much better than the effort that got him benched on Sunday.

“Yesterday was a tough game for Peyton, and I just told him, after I gave him the DPOG (Defensive Player of the Game) chain today, it’s all about how you respond to this business, and you can feel sorry for yourself, you can be mad, but you can do something about it,” Malone said. “And what Peyton did today, he showed he’s a grown-ass man. And okay, yesterday wasn’t my day, and the coach is going to give me a chance today. He’s one of the first subs off the bench in that first quarter, and I felt he was just contributing across the board… we need everybody else to step up and play their best, and we got that today from a lot of players.”

The Thunder were also hot from three, led by Lu Dort’s career-high eight triples to carry a 19-for-47 showing. But the Nuggets played much more of their game on Monday in splitting the season series with OKC, and that speaks to the ceiling of this team. Of course, you’re top level is pretty high when you have the best player in the world.

“We didn’t prove anything, we came out ready to play. We wanted to bring the right mindset, they have a great crowd and a great team,” Murray told the broadcast after the win. “I played my game flowing like water, I got the best player in the world on my team.”

Jokic scored more points, grabbed more rebounds and threw more assists, and had the same number of steals as SGA on Monday. The West might be won already but the MVP race is still a dead heat.

DENVER DROPS 140 IN OKC 🔥

Jokić: 35 PTS (15-20 FGM), 18 REB, 8 AST
Murray: 31 PTS, 6 AST, 3 3PM

The win moves the @nuggets into 2nd in the West 📈🏔️ pic.twitter.com/D0XfkISatw

— NBA (@NBA) March 11, 2025