The Oklahoma City Thunder earned an impressive season opening victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night in the league's most-watched opening night ever. The Thunder got a statement win over the Spurs who have had their number of late. Including when the Thunder were ousted in the Western Conference Finals at the hands of San Antonio.
The schedule doesn't lighten up –– until Sunday anyway –– tonight, the Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Denver Nuggets in the home opener inside the Paycom Center. The Nuggets, who still roster a fantastic starting five with questions about their depth but there is no denying the star power of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic along with the winning qualities of Aaron Gordon.
This is going to be a fun matchup as these two division foes always play close against one another.
3 Critical Storylines to Watch in OKC Thunder vs. Denver Nuggets
1) The Best Player in the World Debate Heats up, Again
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was on fire in San Antonio. He delievered the Thunder a win on the road by silencing the rockign Spurs home crowd and stifling any momentum the Spurs tried to build after getting down 26 points. Gilgeous-Alexander showed up and in every way outplayed Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. This summer, the NBA media work has crowned Wembanyama while banishing Gilgeous-Alexander to the third best player in the world with Nuggets star Nikola Jokic ranked between the two. Tonight is another chance for Gilgeous-Alexander to prove to be the best in the world.
2) How the OKC Thunder cover Nikola Jokic
The Thunder have seen great success defending Jokic –- compared to his standard as one of the league's best –– and have done it with defenders such as Alex Caruso and Jalen Williams scaling up to defend the big man assisting the high-level Jaylin Williams minutes in this matchup and starting center Isaiah Hartenstein. Is that still what Mark Daigneault elects to do with Jokic? Will the Thunder bench boss deploy rookie big man Aday Mara on Jokic after giving the Michigan product the Wembanyama assignment as the first sub off the bench?
3) Jalen Williams knocking the rust off
it was great to see the All-NBA swingman able to return to the court on Tuesday at full strength. His defense was great for Oklahoma City and burst was back, the scoring ability was a tad rusty, expectedly so. Everyone knows what the No. 2 scoring option is capable of, expect a big night tonight from the Santa Clara product.
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