Oklahoma City Thunder (2-0) beat Denver Nuggets 96-84 at home on Thursday, October 22 in a low-scoring game: just 180 combined points between the two teams.
How it unfolded
Points were hard to come by. The leading team scored 96, and neither team reached 97. The Thunder led by -4 at halftime after trailing, then pulled ahead late.
What decided it
The Thunder gave the ball away on 12.4% of their possessions while the Nuggets did so 23.2% of the time. Protecting the ball is an easy edge to overlook, but each turnover costs a shot.
The Nuggets did win one battle, second chances: ORB% of 38.8% against 32%. The Thunder made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 96 possessions per team. The Thunder scored 100.1 points per 100 possessions and the Nuggets scored 87.6, a difference of 12.5.
Who made the difference
Aaron Gordon (DEN) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (18.9): 20 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast on 6-9 shooting. The team was -11 in the minutes Aaron played.
For the Thunder, Chet Holmgren was the best of the rest at 17: 12 pts, 17 reb, 2 ast, 4 blk on 5-9 shooting.
Chet Holmgren (12 pts, 17 reb, 2 ast) recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The result fit the pre-game Win Meter, which gave the Thunder about a 77% chance.
Across the last 15 meetings in our records, Oklahoma City Thunder lead 9-6.
The Thunder are now 2-0. The Thunder last five before this game: L-W-L-L-W.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.