The OKC Thunder and Denver Nuggets may have tied their season series with a record of 2-2 in 2024-25, but big man Nikola Jokic isn't allowing himself to underestimate just how challenging their upcoming Western Conference Semifinals matchup will likely be.
After eliminating the LA Clippers this past Saturday in a winner-take-all Game 7, the superstar center was asked by the folks on TNT's Inside the NBA what his "initial thoughts" were about meeting Oklahoma City in round two of the playoffs.
Without hesitation, Jokic would go on to describe the ball club as "definitely a very scary team," highlighting their elite high-seed, two-way production as something that could cause them serious issues if they're not careful.
Nikola Jokic understands how 'scary' Thunder's fast-pace of play can be
"On both ends, they're playing by really pushing the pace. They're trying to attack your back, trying to attack your position, and everything they do is really hard, really full speed. Hopefully we can match them," Jokic said.
The Thunder wrapped up the regular season having ranked fifth in the pace department (100.90), with Denver falling a few rungs behind them at eighth (100.67).
Thus far into the postseason, Oklahoma City has gone on to push things a bit more on the court, bumping their pace of play up to 102.63 while the Nuggets have found themselves taking a rather steep fall in this area, registering in with the sixth-slowest mark at 92.06.
However, despite these impressive metrics, in 2024-25, Jokic and co. have seemingly found a way to do damage against their objectively quicker foe by throwing what has proven to be a seriously troublesome scheme at them -- zone defense.
This season, the Nuggets have utilized this type of game plan seemingly to perfection against the Thunder, as they've seen OKC's third-ranked offensive rating of 119.2 plummet to a disastrous 93 rating in such sets, per Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor.
On his eponymous show, the senior NBA analyst made a rather intriguing realization about how dominant this defensive approach has faired against Oklahoma City, noting that the Thunder are seeing "25 percent of their shots come in the restricted area, 21 percent in the paint, 16 percent in the mid-range, 38 percent from three" when in man-to-man.
Adjusted to a zone, however, they see these percentages shift to 10 percent, 17 percent, 15 percent, and, the most startling, 58 percent, respectively.
Considering the Thunder are the second-most frequent driving team in the association (54.5 per game) and were 10 in points in the paint this season (51.1 per game), it should come as no surprise that Denver forcing them to slow down and settle for a majority of three-point looks has not faired all that well for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company to this point.
Still, regardless of what transpired during the regular season, their second-round matchup starts with a clean slate at 0-0 as we head into Monday night's Game 1 tip-off.
With this, along with the sheer fact that the faster-paced Thunder are coming in with fresh legs following an eight-day rest period while Denver will just be coming off a grueling seven-game quarterfinals series just 48 hours earlier, it's more than fair for Nikola Jokic to be admittedly frightened about this area of OKC's on-court agenda.