Nuggets destroyed by Thunder in Game 2 as Nikola Jokic fouls out in third quarter

OKLAHOMA CITY In situation it wasn t clear before the Nuggets are dealing with the best group in the NBA Measuring by point differential this season it was the best band in league history in fact But point differential doesn t matter in a playoff series fortunately for Denver If it did the Thunder would be up by after a - Encounter rout on Wednesday Instead the count is solely - as the Nuggets return home needing to regroup for Battle on Friday Denver trailed - at halftime after allowing the greater part points ever scored in a half of playoff basketball The Thunder finished the night from the field and from -point range Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with points on -of- shooting Nikola Jokic fouled out on an illegal screen with remaining in the third quarter of a -point meeting Only then did Nuggets interim coach David Adelman cease to play his starters pulling Jamal Murray for Jalen Pickett seconds later Jokic s Championship ended with points on shots six assists and an equal number of turnovers He struggled to attack Oklahoma City s third-string big Jaylin Williams from the moment Mark Daigneault put him on the floor in a highly unique sub pattern That Daigneault could afford to try that five minutes into a playoff competition illuminated the talent gap between Denver and Oklahoma City Williams was th in minutes played for the Thunder in the first round but he entered and made an instant two-way impact against the Nuggets who have been toggling with the bottom of their rotation throughout the playoffs The rotation ends after seven The eighth man depends on the night when there is one At one point against the Clippers it was Vlatko Cancar In the series opener on Monday it was Julian Strawther for six minutes On Wednesday it was backup center DeAndre Jordan I think for these guys sometimes it s hard when you rotate them in and it s Nikola s rest minutes Adelman revealed and you re saying Hey go make an impact when our whole system is based around playing through him Nuggets-Thunder Tournament -pointers Even Patrick Beverley thought Nuggets were wronged by refs This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e details if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i