It’s been nine days since the Oklahoma City Thunder last played.
The Denver Nuggets are coming off a grueling seven-game series against the Clippers that ended just Saturday night.
That contrast in schedules may be a factor as the Thunder and Nuggets meet in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals on Monday night in Oklahoma City.
Both teams are looking to advance further than they did last season, when both lost in the second round — the Thunder to Dallas and Denver to Minnesota.
The series will feature two of the three finalists for the NBA Most Valuable Player award, which figures to be announced at some point during the series. Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokic are the finalists.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.3 points and 6.5 assists per game in four meetings against the Nuggets this season.
While the Thunder swept Memphis in the first round, including winning the series opener by 51, Gilgeous-Alexander was slow to get going against the Grizzlies.
But after shooting just 35.3 percent in the first three games of that series, Gilgeous-Alexander rebounded to score 38 on 13-of-24 shooting in the series clincher on April 26.
Jokic, a three-time MVP, averaged 24 points, 11.6 rebounds and 10.1 assists in the Nuggets’ first-round series.
Jokic had a pair of triple-doubles against the Thunder this season, and scored 35 on 15-of-20 shooting in their last meeting March 10.
The series also features the present — and future — of the Thunder franchise against its past.
Gilgeous-Alexander came to Oklahoma City in July 2019 after spending his rookie season with the Clippers. Less than a week later, Russell Westbook — who along with Kevin Durant helped the Thunder become a playoff regular — was traded to Houston.
Westbrook no longer has the same explosiveness that made him a triple-double machine, but he showed in the first round that there is still gas left in the tank.
In the first-round series, Westbrook shot nearly 42 percent from beyond the arc and averaged 13.8 points per game off the bench.
“You have to account for the fact that he’s gonna come in the game ready to rock and the pace of the game is gonna go up,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “He’s gonna be trying to make something happen right off the bat and you can’t be flat-footed.”
Westbrook played a key role in Game 7 against the Clippers, helping Denver create some separation in the second quarter.
“My ability to be a force of nature on the floor is what I pride myself on,” Westbrook said. “So, whatever that looks like — it may be a turnover, it may be a missed shot, but it may be a steal, it may be a dunk, it may be a missed three, it may be a made three. It’s gonna be all of that. So, just take it for how it comes, and whatever happens you go with it.”
The teams split their four games in the regular season, including splitting back-to-back games in early March in Oklahoma City in their last meetings.
The Thunder won 127-103 on March 9 with the Nuggets winning 140-127 a day later.
But all of those games came before Denver’s surprising late-season move to fire coach Michael Malone.
Daigneault said he expected the Nuggets to look different than they did against the Clippers.
“I mean, good data point,” he said of studying Denver’s first-round series. “It gives you a good understanding of how they play against the Clippers, but it doesn’t give you a good understanding of how they play against us. This series will have its own face.”
The series will be the first playoff meeting between the teams since 2011, when Oklahoma City — with the help of nearly 24 points per game from Westbrook — beat the Nuggets in five games.
–Field Level Media
