OKLAHOMA CITY — Hounded by Alex Caruso in the post, all Nikola Jokic needed was to receive the ball to get the best of the premiere defensive specialist. The reigning MVP winner moved his hips and faced the basket before he swished in a stationary mid-range bucket.

That was the dagger in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 140-127 loss to the Denver Nuggets. With a chance to stomp out Jokic’s MVP odds, Shai Gilgeous-Ale xander settled for a split in this home backto- back.

“I thought their attacks were really good. They delivered on some shots. They stepped into shots with confidence and made us pay when we overhelped or when we left them open,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “They did a good job there but certainly it doesn’t come down to just that. I thought we had to be a lot sharper on that end of the floor to give ourselves a chance to win. Even when you take away some of the threes they made, the amount of points we gave up on stuff that we can control within our gameplan was too many.”

Defense was optional in this one. A fast start saw both teams race on the scoreboard. The Nuggets held a 34-32 lead after the first quarter. The same continued in the second frame. It felt like the Thunder were on the verge of creating distance after Jalen Williams knocked down a 3-pointer and dished it out to Isaiah Hartenstein for an and-one chance.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s jog to a pull-up 3-pointer pushed the Thunder’s lead to 59-51 with less than five minutes left in the second quarter. Everything went their way until the Nuggets blitzed them with a strong finish to make it a 73-67 contest at the halftime break.

On top of a poor firsthalf finish, Williams was ruled out for the second half with a hip strain. The injury cut his night short after it looked like he’d have another monster outing against the Nuggets. His absence was felt as the Thunder struggled to create looks sans Gilgeous-Alexander.

Lu Dort’s hot outside shooting helped, but that wasn’t enough. The Nuggets eventually retook the lead as Jokic scored on a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer to tie it up at 99 points apiece and Jamal Murray swished in both free-throw attempts on the next play to make it a 101-99 Denver advantage.

The Nuggets scored 34 points in the third quarter and the Thunder entered the fourth quarter down two points. Denver had an 18-2 run bled between quarters to quickly make a 111-101 score a little over two minutes into the fourth frame.

Murray caught fire and the Thunder had no counterpunch without Williams. From that point forward, they played catch-up on the scoreboard. The Nuggets led by as many as 16 points as a 39-point final frame resulted in a rare home loss for OKC.

The Thunder shot 47% from the field and went 19-of-47 (40.4%) from 3. They went 14-of-16 on free throws. They had 29 assists on 47 baskets. Six Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander had an efficient 25 points and seven assists. Dort scored 26 points and shot 8-of-14 from the outside. Harten stein had 20 points and seven rebounds. Williams had 12 points before he was injured. Off the bench, Caruso had 13 points and Cason Wallace had 12 points.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets shot a ridiculous 61% from the field and a sizzling 18-of-32 (56.3%) from 3. They shot 18-of-20 on free throws. They had 32 assists on 52 baskets. Seven Nuggets players scored double-digit points.

Jokic had 35 points on 15-of-20 shooting, 18 rebounds and eight assists. Murray scored 34 points on 11-of-22 shooting and six assists. Michael Porter Jr. tallied 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and six rebounds. Russell Westbrook finished with 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Christian Braun had 14 points and Peyton Watson had 16 points.

This was a tough split for the Thunder to take. The Nuggets had arguably the best outing this season against their league-best defense. To score 140 points and shoot over 60% from the field in regulation showed that they had OKC figured out on that end of the floor. Jokic is the ultimate equalizer. He dissected them like a frog, and Denver’s role players showed out.

Without Williams and several off-nights from Thunder role players, they didn’t have enough offensive scoring power to keep up for the full four quarters. Against the Nuggets’ lava-esque shooting, the game quickly escalated late.

“I thought they threw us off rhythm with the zone, trapping thing with Shai. They were able to limit his attempts and I did think that threw us off rhythm. I gotta get back on the drawing board with that,” Daigneault said. “That’s certainly not something we’ve seen out of them very much, if at all. I don’t think we’ve ever seen that out of them. Seeing very little of that generally, but that’s a new thing. We got to add to the whiteboard, come up with some solutions, be better the next time someone tries it.”