• 2 full days rest for Denver. That’s going to help them a lot, more than it will help OKC.
• Jokic – relatively low mileage game. Has 2 days of rest. Really committed to moving the ball to find a hot hand. Eventually, Strawther became that guy. He played a sublime game. Gonna be tough to deal with in Game 7.
• Strawther showed up as scorer. Played with a lot of confidence. Denver can go 8 deep now, which relieves the burden on their core. Give Adelman credit for getting control of Russ and elevating Strawther. He might’ve solved the bench problem and might’ve won the series with that move.
• Strawther will get the flowers for making shots, but the game saver for me was Braun. Had a 23-12 game and it seemed like he got every offensive rebound in Q3 when the Nuggets were teetering. He might’ve stepped up to replace MPJ in the pecking order.
• Peyton Watson – good defender, good athlete, garbage touch around the rim and horrible FT shooter/shooter in general. Howver, if he just calms the heck down and makes smart basketball plays, he can be a problem.
• Russ was bad, but not terrible in a self destructive, hari kari sort of way. I credit Adelman with yanking him out a few times to get the point across. I think Russ has value as a perimeter defender and a guy who can get the ball across the court against the OKC press (which is really important). I just want him to just hand the ball off to Jokic once he gets it across the court and then go crash the boards.

I don’t know who will win Game 7 but through 6 games I think Denver has been the better team. Their starts have outscored OKC’s starters. Chet/J-Dub and others have been exposed a bit. Denver’s half court offense and defense have been better. The refs have been pretty favorable for OKC. In addition, I’d say that OKC has been the beneficiary of the fatigue factor for Denver due to the brutal NBA schedule. If Gordon is good to go, with 2 full days rest I’d be inclined to give Denver an edge. But it’s a coin flip because OKC might get a magnet ball game from someone, turnovers could pile up for Denver, and the officials will probably step on the scales to protect the #1 seed. We’ll see.

They have an excellent chance to get to the NBA finals. They can match up with anyone; they have a lot of depth; and they don’t have a lot of mileage on their wheels through 2 rounds of playoffs. The Ant-Randle duo might be the most difficult duo to defend against in the league, outside of maybe Jokic-Murray. Randle has become a very effective point forward and he’s unlocking all of the other 4 guys on the floor. I don’t think OKC can match up with him and Gordon, although he has the physicality to match up, might wear down over a 7 game series.