Nuggets storm past Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder (12-10) came into Denver (17-7) on Monday night looking to ride their star, Kevin Durant, who has become the leading active scorer against the Nuggets, but left instead with a 102-93 loss.  Durant is only 21 and is also the third-leading scorer in the NBA.  Oklahoma City is a young, up and coming team.  They are a good road team, as they are one of three teams in the Western Conference with a winning road record.  They came in sitting in fourth place in the Northwestern Division and four games behind Denver.

Last season, Denver swept the season series 4-0 but stole a couple of close games.

On Monday night, the first quarter started off slowly as the Nuggets shots weren’t falling.  George Karl got the team to pass the ball, and open shots began to present themselves.  They made only 8 of 24 shots in the first but had the lead, 25-23.  Oklahoma City had 18 points in the paint.

Chris Andersen had a productive second quarter with 7 rebound and 10 points.  The most exciting play was a dunk off of a Chauncey Billups between-the-legs bounce pass in the lane.  J.R. Smith contributed another 10 after his scoring absence in the Phoenix game Saturday.  Denver took a 15-point lead into halftime.

Denver started the third quarter slowly but was able to keep a comfortable 10- to 15-point spread most of the quarter.  Durant started exchanging words with Carmelo Anthony.  Melo responded by showing his newfound passion for defense, a passion that wasn’t present in prior years.   Highlight of the quarter was an acrobatic fast-break layup by Anthony as he flipped the ball over his left shoulder as he was falling to the ground, avoiding two defenders trying to block his shot.  The layup pushed the Denver lead to 17 and forced an Oklahoma City timeout.

Smith picked up a technical foul after being pushed on the offensive end and not getting the call.  The no-call led to a Denver turnover.

Karl played the quick lineup of Billups, Smith and Lawson for the first time since Philadelphia.  There was a high number of calls during the fourth quarter, which didn’t allow much of a flow to the game.  Nene fouled out with 6:50 left in the fourth.

Andersen’s fully charged hair helped him have a good game.  He had a double-double, pulling down 11 rebounds and scoring 15 points.  Durant was the game’s high scorer with 32 points.  But Melo put in 31 for Denver.   Denver continued its dominance of the work in progress, Oklahoma City Thunder.  Final score 102-93.  Denver is now 18-7, Oklahoma City falls to 12-11.

Next up: the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center.