OKLAHOMA CITY — Torrey Craig had done everything and more in his spot start for the injured Gary Harris, but one final second chance bucket wouldn’t hurt.
He corralled one more miss with just over a minute left, dropped it in and officially curbed the Thunder’s fourth-quarter run. The Nuggets, who improved to 13-7 on the year, won 105-98 for their third win in a row. The Thunder entered Saturday having won 12 of their last 14 games.
With Harris out due to an ankle injury, Craig was phenomenal on both ends of the floor. He finished with eight points and 10 rebounds, including six demoralizing offensive boards. He also held Russell Westbrook to just 16 points on 6 of 23 shooting.
“Torrey Craig was sensational tonight,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “I love the fact that he took on the challenge of guarding one of the more unguardable guys in the NBA. As I just told the team, we had every reason to make an excuse for tonight’s game. Three games in four nights, back-to-back, Gary’s not playing. I said, ‘We don’t make excuses, we find ways.'”
On a night where their offense went cold in the second half, it was the defense that the Nuggets leaned on. The Thunder shot just 35 percent overall, including 23 percent (9 for 39) from 3-point range.
Jamal Murray led the Nuggets with 22 points, followed by Nikola Jokic and Trey Lyles, who had 16 each. Murray also added eight assists and eight rebounds.
Paul George, who finished with 24, nailed a 3-pointer from the wing to make it 80-71, but Jokic and Monte Morris responded with timely buckets to protect the lead. Murray buried a huge 3-pointer from the wing with 5:48 to give the Nuggets a 92-79 lead. It was their defense, though, that carried them over the finish.
Frustrated from an abysmal first half, the Thunder chipped away in the third quarter. They outscored the Nuggets 24-16 while Westbrook continued to soften up the defense with downhill drives. He had nine points on 10 shots, and Steven Adams added six points and six rebounds to cut the margin to 79-66 heading into the fourth. Adams finished with a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan sounded prophetic pregame while praising the Nuggets’ multifaceted frontcourt.
“You think about an offensive rebounding team and you think you have big, strong guys that play under the basket,” Donovan said, citing Mason Plumlee, Paul Millsap and Jokic. “They’re just the opposite. You’ve got these big strong guys that are great skill players. … It’s a little bit unique when you have the frontcourt guys that are starting the fastbreak. Their bigs are kind of the quarterbacks of their offense. Everything kind of goes through them.”
Jokic, the team’s primary fulcrum, wasn’t nearly as impactful as his frontcourt counterparts, but once again, the Nuggets showed their depth.
Despite their fifth-rated defense one quarter of the way through the season, Malone wasn’t close to declaring his team a defensive stalwart.
“Last year, after 15 games, we were a really good defensive team as well, and by the time it got to February and March, the bottom just fell out,” Malone said. “Nineteen games does not make a season.”
While he was understandably wary about jumping to conclusions, it was the fourth consecutive game the Nuggets cranked up their intensity on defense. Denver surged in the second quarter, their lead getting as big as 25 while holding the Thunder to just 29 percent shooting in the first half.
Murray led the Nuggets with 14 points, and Lyles and Plumlee combined for 19 off the bench, but perhaps most impressive was Craig’s defense of Westbrook. Craig, who played five minutes over the previous four games, got into and under the skin of Westbrook, holding him to just seven points on 2 for 7 shooting. The Thunder were just 2 of 19 from 3-point range, but the Nuggets also took away their advantage in the paint. The Nuggets were plus-14 in that regard throughout the first two quarters, thanks in part to two huge blocks from Plumlee.
They also withstood a momentary scare when Millsap banged into George going for a long rebound and suffered a left knee contusion. For the second time in three games, he returned from an injury.