The Thunder is expected to play the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. But what if it’s Denver instead? The Lakers lead the best-of-seven series three games to two, with Game 6 Thursday night in Los Angeles. We’ve all speculated on a Thunder-Laker series. We haven’t spent much time on the Nuggets, who are a fascinating team.
The Nuggets have undergone their second remake in 15 months. We saw Denver up close last April, when the Thunder eliminated the Nuggets in the first round of the 2012 Western Conference playoffs. That Denver team persevered despite the trade of superstar Carmelo Anthony to the Knickerbockers. But Denver has retooled again.
Here’s how crazy the Nugget turnover has been. Anthony was traded on Feb. 21, 2011. That’s less than 15 months. And only four Nuggets remain from the Denver roster of Feb. 20, 2011: Arron Afflalo, the Birdman, Al Harrington and Ty Lawson. And Birdman no longer is in the rotation. So Denver is using just three players who were on the team before the Carmelo trade.
That’s wild. So many of the Nuggets who were part of that spirited series against the Thunder â€" Raymond Felton, Nene Hilario, J.R. Smith, Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler â€" are gone. The Nuggets since then have added Andre Miller and JaVale McGee and Kenneth Faried and Corey Brewer.
Compare that roster stability to the Thunder, which has six of its top seven players â€" Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Thabo Sefolosha and Nick Collison â€" the same as November 2009. Only Kendrick Perkins is new to the equation. Derek Fisher would be the No. 8 player, and he’s on the roster only because of the injury to Eric Maynor.
How would the Thunder fare against Denver? The Thunder finished nine games ahead of the Nuggets in the Northwest Division. OKC won two of three vs. the Nuggets:
* 124-118 in overtime on Feb. 19 in that epic Oklahoma City game in which Durant had 51 points, Westbrook 40 and Ibaka posted a triple double;
* 103-90 at Denver on March 15, void of much drama other than the Thunder played solid.
In the Thunder’s regular-season finale, on April 25, the Nuggets won 106-101, and while the Thunder played all-out and didn’t significantly rest its starters, the game had the feel of an exhibition. Had the Thunder won that game, and Dallas won its season finale at Atlanta, the Thunder and Nuggets would have played in the first round.
The Lakers are a good matchup for the Thunder, even though Kendrick Perkins’ hip injury would make things a little hairy for OKC. But the Nuggets are an even better matchup for the Thunder. Denver can run, but the Thunder handles transition well when it’s focused, which the Thunder almost always is in the post-season. Denver has no clear answer for Durant or Westbrook, while the Thunder has some defensive answers for the Nuggets’ best weapons â€" Thabo or Westbrook on Lawson, Durant on Gallinari.
The Thunder should do well if it happens to play Denver. Just don’t expect the same Denver team you saw last spring.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
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