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The Oklahoma City Thunder prevailed with relative comfort in their duel against the Denver Nuggets (108-94). His point guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, dazzled everyone with his first triple-double of the season. This is the third consecutive victory for the team, which, despite this, continues to spot the access positions from afar playoffs.
After their visit to Memphis, the Thunder were back at the Paycom Center and wanted to take advantage of it. They entered the game much more intense than their rival and, at the end of the first quarter, the advantage was already 10 points. The Nuggets’ reaction was swift. However, a great individual performance ofGilgeous-Alexander, who came in with 19 points at halftime, held home advantage at the end of the second quarter.
It was in the third quarter when Oklahoma City finished breaking the game. They repeated the tactic at the beginning of the match and before entering the decisive quarter the distance between both teams was already over 20 points. It was then that the Nuggets, with the second unit on track, closed the gap thanks to a good role from Austin Rivers and Facundo Campazzo. They came within 10 points of each other, but it was too late.
Gilgeous-Alexander rounded out a perfect night with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, the second triple-double of his entire career. Despite not being successful from long range – a surprising 0 of 7 on 3s – he was the scoring leader his team needed. This season, the Thunder have a 53% win rate when he plays, which contrasts with a poor 16.7% when he is not available.
Some Nuggets that do not start
The team led by Mike Malone continues its irregular course. After the meritorious victory in Atlanta just a few days ago, he could not continue with the positive dynamics and they lost again. Nikola Jokic reached 9,000 points in his career, but could only contribute 13 in almost 25 minutes of play. He was left without playing the last quarter due to the wide distance between the two teams.
After the loss, the Nuggets are left with a 15-15 record that keeps them in the fight for the positions of playoffs. Now, those of Denver do not finish finding the consistency in their game that they did show in previous seasons. Before Christmas Day they will host the Charlotte Hornets to try to get back on the winning track.
(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
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