After pushing through the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games, the Denver Nuggets meet the NBA’s top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the playoffs — where the Mile High City hoopers are big underdogs.
That series will begin on Monday in The Big Friendly, and will feature a matchup of the expected first and second-place finishers in this year’s MVP race. Nikola Jokic actually won his third edition of the award in 2024, with SGA coming runner-up. In 2025, most seemingly have the Thunder guard claiming the award over the Nuggets center and the NBA should announce this news at some point during the seven-game series between their two teams.
It’s the third straight year and sixth time in seven seasons the Nuggets have advanced to the second round. Last summer, things ended in a disaster when the Nuggets blew a 20-point lead in Game 7 of Round 2 against the Wolves. Two summers ago was the opposite, when the Nuggets went all the way to win their first title in franchise history.
The Thunder also went home in Round 2 last year, getting dragged by Dallas, but they’re far better this season thanks to a few big pickups and a year of improvement from the young squad. The Thunder became just the eighth team in league history to win 68 or more games in a season. And they marched through Memphis via a sweep in the first round. The Nuggets are one of just seven teams that can even claim a win over the Thunder since a week before Thanksgiving (Lakers, Rockets, Timberwolves, Warriors, Mavericks and Cavaliers)
-900 Los Angeles, +610 Denver
May 5: Game 1, 7:30 (TNT), Oklahoma City
May 7: Game 2, 7:30 (TNT), Oklahoma City
May 9: Game 3, 8:00 (ESPN), Denver
May 11: Game 4, 2:30 (ABC), Denver
TBD: Game 5, TBD (TBD), Oklahoma City *
TBD: Game 6, TBD (TBD), Denver*
TBD: Game 7, TBD (TBD), Oklahoma City *
The last time the Nuggets met the Thunder in the playoffs was way back in 2011. Then, OKC ended an era of Nuggets basketball with a win in five games, led in part by Russell Westbrook, who got his first playoff series win. That’s the only matchup in the postseason between the teams from these cities, though one of the Nuggets best moments came before the Thunder moved south. Back when they were the Seattle Supersonics in 1994, Dikembe Mutombo led the Nuggets to the NBA’s first-ever eight-seed over a one-seed upset. Can the Nuggets pull an upset of the same franchise with the same seed as they honor Mutombo with his number on the floor just months after the legend passed away?
