After following the trend of home teams falling in Game 1 of the 2025 Western Conference Semifinals, the OKC Thunder opted to blaze their own trail on Wednesday night and put an end to this troubling, league-wide fad.
Behind a full-team effort, Oklahoma City absolutely dominated the visiting Nuggets in front of a packed Paycom Center to the tune of a 149-106 blowout, setting a new NBA playoff record for most points scored in a single half (87) while tying for the most points through three quarters of action (124) along the way.
Though things like etching themselves into the league's history books and evening the series at 1-1 before heading on the road out to the Mile High City should both be seen as takeaways worth celebrating following their Game 2 triumph, they are far from the most noteworthy.
In fact, perhaps the most vital post-game storyline should be how OKC managed to shed light on arguably Denver's biggest weakness -- rotational depth.
Thunder shine light on biggest advantage over Nuggets with Game 2 win
Coming into this second-round series, many were found chastising the Nuggets for their lack of reliable options behind their core trio of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon.
Prior to Game 1, NBA legend and NBA on TNT personality Charles Barkley even went as far as to say that the biggest difference-maker in this semifinal matchup will be the Thunder's rotation depth and the Nuggets' lack thereof, as further elaborated by saying, "they don't have a bench."
Frankly, considering OKC finished the season with the top-rated, two-way second-unit in the league while Denver's fell into the bottom 10 and simultaneously averaged the fourth-fewest points per game, the numbers show that such a take was far from egregious.
The Nuggets' limited collection of reinforcements was seemingly put on full display Wednesday, as they saw just two players in total score above 10 points on the night while seeing seven who logged 10 or more minutes cap themselves in the single-digits.
The Thunder, meanwhile, saw five players score 14 or more points on the night and had eight clock in with double-digit point totals on 56.2/44.4/91.7 shooting splits as a collective.
Now, though they were clearly able to mask such a limitation in their win during Monday's series opener, this was, in large part, due to Jokic's historic 42 points, 22 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal on 51.7 percent shooting stat-line.
Take that type of performance away and force others around the three-time MVP to step up -- as they did in Game 2 -- and, based on how things ultimately played out, you get an absolutely dominant win from Oklahoma City.
The Thunder may have officially shined a spotlight on their biggest advantage in this second-round series, and they need to try and take full advantage moving forward.