Oklahoma City might be in hassle on Saturday.
The Thunder return to the courtroom for their second recreation of the common season, this time on the street in Denver towards the Nuggets. Playing the Nuggets comes with one of many greatest challenges of any group within the league, Nikola Jokic.
Jokic, the back-to-back MVP of the league, presents a much bigger problem to OKC than he does to many different NBA groups. The Thunder don’t have a real NBA middle to match up with the dominant presence of Jokic, which implies the Thunder will flip towards a committee of massive males to aim to close down Jokic.
He dominated within the Nuggets loss to the Suns of their first recreation of the season. He scored 27 factors, grabbed 4 rebounds and dished six assists.
The Thunder began Kenrich Williams and Aleksej Pokusevski on the 4 and 5 respectively of their season opener, however may see extra measurement fill into the beginning 5 with Jokic on deck. Williams is 6-foot-6 and 210 kilos, desperately undersized to defend the 6-foot-11 284 pound Jokic. Pokusevski however is barely extra outfitted to cope with Jokic’s skills. Poku checks in at 7-foot tall, however solely 190 kilos.
In the 2021-22 season Jeremiah Robinson-Earl drew the tough problem in most matchups with the Nuggets. JRE didn’t draw the beginning in OKC’s first recreation however might be known as into a much bigger position for his measurement. JRE checks in at 6-foot-8 and 242 kilos, which extra intently fits the make-up of Jokic, however stays undersized.
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Jokic confronted OKC 4 occasions final season, the Thunder completed with a 2-2 report, however Jokic was a dominant pressure. He averaged 23 factors, 13.25 rebounds and 5.25 assists per recreation. Jokic shot
Jokic’ 36-for-62 from the sector in these 4 video games for a powerful 58%, which was on the nostril for his season common.
The Serbian could also be too robust for the Thunder to close down, which is unlikely for even one of the best NBA groups to do, however the Thunder must flip to their prolonged large males like JRE or Pokusevski.
If the Thunder hope to hold with the Nuggets they must hold their hat on shutting down the gamers they will extra simply match up with just like the Nugget guards.
It received’t be straightforward, however OKC has the our bodies to match up properly with the Nuggets outdoors of Jokic.
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