Nuggets-Thunder Preview

By JEFF MEZYDLO
Posted Apr 25 2012 12:54AM

Even with the playoffs about to start, the last thing the Oklahoma City Thunder want to do is rush one of their top players back from injury.

The Thunder could again be without key reserve James Harden when they conclude the regular season at home Wednesday night against the playoff-bound Denver Nuggets.

Oklahoma City (47-18) has secured the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, but it's uncertain when Harden will be back. Harden suffered a concussion when he took an elbow to the head from the Lakers' Metta World Peace in Sunday's 114-106 double-overtime loss. Averaging career highs of 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists, Harden will be re-evaluated prior to this contest.

"There are steps that we have to take. We just have to continue that, the process of doing all the steps," coach Scott Brooks said.

"We're not going to stop now. No matter who plays, we still have a standard that we have to make sure (we play up to a high standard)."

With Harden out Tuesday, Kevin Durant had 32 points and nine rebounds in Oklahoma City's 118-110 home win over Sacramento.

Averaging 28.0 points per game, Durant holds a slim advantage over Kobe Bryant (27.9) for the NBA scoring title.

"That's what the fans want to see, I guess," said Durant, averaging 30.3 points in 22 regular season and playoff games versus Denver. "But for me as a player, all I'm worried about is getting better."

The Thunder have taken the last four meetings with the Nuggets (36-28) by an average margin of 10.3 points, but they needed overtime to win 124-118 in the last matchup in Oklahoma City on Feb. 19, behind a career-high 51 points from Durant.

With two games remaining, Denver can secure its current sixth spot in the West either with wins Wednesday and Thursday at Minnesota, or a Dallas road loss to Atlanta. Securing a playoff berth already stands as a big accomplishment for the Nuggets, who have surged from ninth place to sixth in the conference by winning nine of 13.

"I never backed away from the playoffs," coach George Karl told the Nuggets' official website. "I always thought we were going to be a playoff team, and I think we can still have a chance to be a good playoff team."

Denver looks for a third consecutive victory after a 101-74 home rout of Orlando on Sunday. Danilo Gallinari and JaVale McGee each had 17 points as Denver outscored the struggling Magic 57-30 in the second half.

"I feel like we're getting better every game and we're becoming a solid team to where we can play people who don't play so we can give our people a rest for the next game," said McGee, who came off the bench to become the 10th different Nuggets player to lead or share the team lead in scoring this season.

Ty Lawson had 13 points and 10 assists against the Magic, and is averaging 22.2 points on 57.1 percent shooting in his last five games.

Nuggets beat Thunder 106-101 to avoid No. 8 seed

By JEFF LATZKE
Posted Apr 26 2012 12:14AM

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The Denver Nuggets grabbed control of where they'll start the NBA playoffs.

Kevin Durant can't say the same about his hold on the league scoring title.

Ty Lawson scored 25 points, Kenneth Faried added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and the Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 106-101 on Wednesday night to ensure they won't be the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Another win and Denver will be the sixth seed and face the Los Angeles Lakers to start the postseason, after starting the month clinging to the last playoff spot in the West.

"You do this in the month of April and a lot of things and a lot of pressure and a lot of stress have been on you, I think that it shows that our guys have a pretty big heart and have some good character," coach George Karl said.

Durant scored 32 points to extend his tenuous lead in the NBA scoring race, leaving Kobe Bryant in need of 38 points in his season finale Thursday night against Sacramento to claim his third scoring title and prevent Durant from becoming the seventh player to win three in a row.

Durant is averaging 28 points, and Bryant 27.9.

LeBron James, who has sat out two of Miami's last three games to rest, would need to score 83 in his finale to have a chance.

"I probably won't watch. If I don't win the scoring title or MVP or whatever, it doesn't mean that I didn't have a good year by my standards," Durant said.

"To think back on everything I've done this season, I've gotten better. I've improved in every area I wanted to improve in. I scored a few points but I think as a defender and as a facilitator, I got better."

Durant said he considered it probably his best NBA season yet.

"If I don't win any awards, that's cool with me. I just want to grow as a player and hopefully they start to come later in my career," he said.

The Thunder had little to gain except momentum in their finale, and had rested Durant and the other starters in the fourth quarter of a close game against Sacramento a night earlier. Oklahoma City held on to win 118-110.

This time, Durant returned with just over 8 minutes left after Denver had scored eight straight points to go up 88-86 following Lawson's driving layup. Durant had scored only 25 points by then - meaning Bryant would have needed only 32 to win the title.

Just after returning, Durant tied the game with a two-handed dunk off an alley-oop from Westbrook.

But Lawson's free throw with 4:11 remaining put Denver up 96-95, and the Nuggets wouldn't trail again.

Durant negated a possession with Oklahoma City trailing 100-99 when he was called for an offensive foul. Faried grabbed Arron Afflalo's missed shot and dunked it with two hands before Russell Westbrook missed a 3-point attempt for the tie.

Corey Brewer then got around Derek Fisher and banked in a critical 18-footer as the shot clock expired to bump the lead to 104-99. The Thunder had one last chance to tie, but Fisher missed a 3-pointer from the left wing with 9 seconds left.

"It felt like a playoff game for us," Faried said. "We just wanted to make a statement that we could stay with anybody and play with anybody."

If the Nuggets lose at Minnesota and Dallas wins at Atlanta on Thursday, Denver would fall to No. 7 and have a rematch with Oklahoma City. The Thunder beat Denver 4-1 in the first round of last year's playoffs.

Otherwise, defending NBA champion Dallas and Oklahoma City will meet in a rematch of last season's Western Conference finals.

"We're going to go after tomorrow's game," Karl said. "I'm not saying we want the Lakers over Oklahoma City. We just want to be playing as good of basketball as we've been playing.

"We're not going to play anybody big minutes tomorrow night but we're going to go in and try to win that game tomorrow night."

Westbrook finished with 30 points, and Serge Ibaka had 15 points and four blocks for Oklahoma City. Both had injury scares in the second half, with Ibaka leaving the floor with a hip contusion and Westbrook coming down hard on his left wrist after trying to block one of Brewer's shots.

Afflalo added 15 points for Denver, which had seven players in double figures and won for the fifth time in its last six games.

"Everybody feels that we're playing our best basketball right now," Karl said.

"I don't want to give anything back. We've made good steps and good strides and played good basketball," he added. "Win or lose, it's just to continue to play a good brand of basketball that we can be proud of and see what happens."

The Thunder played .500 ball down the stretch, losing seven of their last 14 games.

"No matter how you go into the playoffs, there are no guarantees in the postseason," Fisher said. "Would we have liked to have won all of our games down the stretch and be playing better? Of course. But that would not have guaranteed us any more or less success once we started this weekend."

Notes: The Thunder unveiled their Northwest Division championship banner before the game, waiting until a divisional opponent played at Chesapeake Energy Arena to do it. Oklahoma City clinched its second straight division title on April 8. ... Durant said he was proud of achieving his preseason goal of playing in all 66 games. It's the second time in his five-year NBA career that he played every game. ... The only players to win at least three straight scoring titles are George Mikan, Neil Johnston, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob McAdoo, George Gervin, and Michael Jordan. Chamberlain and Jordan are the only ones to have more than three in a row, with both winning seven consecutive titles.

Notebook: Nuggets 106, Thunder 101

Posted Wednesday April 25, 2012 11:35PM

By Randy Renner, NBA.com

THE FACTS: The Denver Nuggets took a big step toward locking up the sixth seed in the Western Conference playoffs by knocking off the Oklahoma City Thunder 106-101. The Nuggets had seven players in double figures led by 25 from point guard Ty Lawson. If Denver beats Minnesota tomorrow night the Nuggets will finish sixth and will play the Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks will be the seventh seed in the West and will play Oklahoma City. The Nuggets also got 15 points from Arron Afflalo and 14 from Danilo Gallinari.

Oklahoma City played to win despite having the second seed in the West already sewn up. OKC's Kevin Durant played 40 minutes and Russell Westbrook was on the floor for 35. Those two combined for 62 points as Durant had 32 and Westbrook dropped in 30. Durant gains a little more ground on Laker guard Kobe Bryant for the scoring title, but Kobe will get the last word tomorrow night at Sacramento. He will need 38 points to pass Durant. Oklahoma City also picked up 15 points from Serge Ibaka. Denver had the best of the bench scoring though, as three Nuggets had 10 points off the bench and their second unit totaled 35 points. Oklahoma City's bench players had 36 points in the fourth quarter alone Tuesday night against the Kings but could manage just 20 the entire game against Denver. The loss ended the Thunder's regular season and now they will wait to see if they will host Denver or Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.

QUOTABLE: "We're playing our best basketball right now (seven wins in the last nine games) and to do this in the month of April shows our guys have a pretty big heart."
-- Nuggets head coach George Karl

QUOTABLE II: "Denver did a good job of establishing their pace and we allowed too many offensive rebounds and turned the ball over too much in the first quarter. After that we settled down, but it was a tough game and a tough loss."
-- Thunder head coach Scott Brooks

THE STAT: Oklahoma City was 8-for-14 (57.1 percent) on 3-pointers in the first half. That turned around in the second half when OKC was just 2-for-10 (20 percent). Denver out-rebounded Oklahoma City 42-37 and dominated the offensive glass with 17 offensive rebounds. The Nuggets also dominated down low on offense out-scoring the Thunder 54-38 in the paint. Denver also scored a whopping 24 points off 18 OKC turnovers. The Nuggets gave the ball back just 11 times.

TURNING POINT: Oklahoma City had rallied to take a two-point lead into the fourth quarter by holding the Nuggets to just 16 points on 30 percent shooting in the third quarter. The Thunder led by six (86-80) early in the fourth and then Denver zipped out on a 14-2 run to lead 94-88 with six minutes to play. The Thunder got it close a couple of times but could never take the lead away from the Nuggets going down the stretch.

QUOTABLE III: "Three or four times in the last five games we've had leads here and managed to find a way to lose. We think we've played this team well. Sometimes we play better on the road. Win or lose we just need to play a good brand of basketball that we can be proud of."
-- Karl

HOT: Oklahoma City shot 60 percent (12-for-20) in the first quarter including 5-for-7 (71.4 percent) on 3-pointers ... Durant was 7-for-12 (20 points) in the first half, 4-for-5 on 3-pointers ... Westbrook was also 7-for-12 (16 points) in the first 24 minutes ... Lawson was 5-for-9 (13 points) at halftime ... The Nuggets had 34 points in the paint at the break ... Ibaka was 6-for-7 in the second half.

NOT: Andre Miller was 1-for-4 (2 points) in the first half ... Gallinari was 1-for-6 in the second half ... Westbrook was 1-for-6 in the fourth quarter ... The Thunder shot 38.9 percent in the fourth quarter (7-for-18) and just 1-for-7 on 3-pointers in the final frame.

INSIDE THE ARENA: The Thunder unveiled their 2011-12 Northwest Division Championship banner to the sold-out crowd inside Chesapeake Energy Arena ... the team also honored the Oklahoma State University womens basketball team. The Cowgirls won the school's first ever WNIT Championship this past season after losing their head coach, Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna in a plane crash during a recruiting trip.

GOOD MOVE: In the third quarter OKC's Thabo Sefolosha grabbed a rebound and led a fast break back the other way. Sefolosha then found a streaking Durant coming in off the left wing with a bounce pass that split two Nugget defenders. Durant finished the play with a slam giving the Thunder a 74-71 lead.

NOTABLE: Thunder guard James Harden has been cleared to play by the NBA after suffering a concussion Sunday when he was hit in the head by Metta World Peace. Brooks decided to keep Harden out of the lineup to give him another day to rest. Brooks told reporters Harden, "should be fine for the playoffs." ... Ibaka, the league leader in blocked shots, left the game in the third quarter after being knocked to the floor and bruising his right hip. He was taken to the locker room and returned to the game in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT: For the Nuggets, Thursday @ Minnesota, Saturday or Sunday on the road for Game 1 in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs. For the Thunder, Saturday or Sunday hosting Game 1 in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs.

• Nuggets: Chandler, Fernandez
• Thunder: Harden, Maynor

• Nuggets: --
• Thunder: Brooks

• Lead Changes: 10
• Times Tied: 6

• Arena: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK
• Officials: #43 Dan Crawford, #26 Pat Fraher, #42 Eric Lewis
• Attendance: 18203
• Duration: 2:12