After a roller coaster weekend of hits and misses the OKC Thunder tip off for the second time this season versus the Denver Nuggets. TIP3 welcomes guest Brendan Vogt to offer his insight and unique take on the Denver Nuggets.
This past weekend served as reminder and small sample of how the OKC Thunder have performed virtually all season. Good outings with glimpses of greatness are followed by complete offensive lapses, lost leads and the inability to close out games.
In spite of this Russell Westbrook delivered in both games and although awkwardly the team nonetheless have strung together six wins in their last nine games. Several first have been checked off the list, however the issue remains finding a cohesive offense on a consistent basis.
Core players out injured:
In this their second meeting the Northwest Division rivals both arrive with key parties out injured. Steven Adams took a shot to the head in overtime which led to a concussion and threw him into the League’s concussion protocol. Adam’s will not play this evening. Despite Paul Millsap being lost for months, Nikola Jokic should make a return to the court after a five game absence.
Without Adams in New York the Thunder had major issues which were punctuated by Carmelo Anthony’ pressing and his inability to score or stop Michael Beasley.
The one positive to pull from the weekend loss was Patrick Patterson’s performance. Typical of his nature his shot always seems to show up mid December. After repeated seasons of witnessing this phenomenon in Toronto, I regularly pointed to this timeframe, so Patterson is delivering on cue.
TIP3 welcomes our guest Brendan Vogt:
As per usual TIP 3 examines each game prior to the tip and asks an authority who can shed light on the opposition. Specifically, by pairing this information with TI’s pregame analysis it gives OKC Thunder fans a full picture of what to expect prior to game time..
Lending insight on the Denver Nuggets is Brendan Vogt. Brendan is the Nuggets beat writer for MileHighSports.com
With that let’s dive into the TIP3 for this evening….