Ousmane Dieng buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Oklahoma City Thunder a 94-91 comeback win over the Nuggets in both teams’ preseason finale Friday — but only after Denver’s second unit went into halftime leading the OKC starters, 59-46.
On a night that Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and company took off, here are three takeaways. The Nuggets finished preseason play 3-2 and will open their season next Thursday at the Golden State Warriors.
Bench 3s
In recent years, Denver’s second unit has gone through stretches of looking collectively allergic to making jump shots. So it’s sort of a big deal when the new-look bench, playing against the Thunder starters, puts together a 13-for-25 half outside the arc.
Tim Hardaway Jr. led the barrage, leaving his 2-for-18 start to the preseason behind him with a 4-for-6 outing. He and Peyton Watson scored 13 points each in the half, with Watson attempting a couple of pick-and-roll pull-up 3s (and making one) when Oklahoma City played conservative coverage against him. Taking the shots given to him was a good choice against such a potent defense, even when he missed — OKC also got six turnovers out of him.
Cam Johnson was Denver’s only starter who played, and he delivered the highlight of the game late in the second quarter by putting a great crossover move on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in transition, then driving and kicking out to Julian Strawther from a near-impossible angle. Strawther rewarded him with an assist.
In the zone
If it wasn’t clear by now, the Nuggets will play a lot more zone defense this season. They often started possessions in a 2-3 at Oklahoma City — and they executed well for the most part, living with many of the Thunder’s 3-point attempts.
Spencer Jones and Zeke Nnaji were especially disruptive on the ball with their length, combining for nine steals. Jones had an impressive sequence in the second quarter when he fought over a screen and forced a turnover out of Gilgeous-Alexander, then knocked the ball loose again moments later when Cason Wallace dribbled into the teeth of the zone.
Nugget coach David Adelman used Nnaji as his second-string center instead of DaRon Holmes II, who finished the game in Denver’s third unit next to Moses Brown, who has spent the preseason in Denver on a training camp deal.
Pickett’s passing
Jalen Pickett was an assist-to-turnover godsend last season in limited playing time. He was a mature facilitator again in Friday’s preseason finale, compiling four assists in 25 minutes before committing his only turnover.
Those assists included two patiently operated fast breaks that both ended with dunks for Watson (one of them as the trail man behind a 2-on-1). On a side pick-and-roll with Jonas Valanciunas, he also found Strawther with a beautiful jumping skip pass to the weak side.
