Oklahoma City dropped the final game of their road trip to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night.
Three takeaways from the Thunder’s 110-102 loss:
Abdel Nader continuing to make the most of his minutes
It’s unfortunate that Nader’s opportunity comes at the cost of injuries to Hamidou Diallo and Terrance Ferguson, but that is the way of the NBA.
Nader was in the starting lineup once again for Oklahoma City on Saturday night against the Nuggets. He scored 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting with a rebound, two assists, and a steal in 26 minutes of game time.
Since joining the starting rotation in place of the injured Terrance Ferguson, who missed his fifth straight game with right hip soreness, Nader is shooting 53% from the field, including a 60% mark from three.
Chris Paul moves up the all-time steal list
Chris Paul does a lot of things well. Creating steals is just one of them, and CP3 is one of the best to ever do it.
Paul had four steals in the Thunder’s loss to Denver, bringing his career total to 2,164 to move him past Hakeem Olajuwon and into sole possession of eighth place on the NBA’s all-time steals list.
Paul is 43 steals away from overtaking Clyde Drexler, who currently sits in seventh place all-time with 2.207.
Schröder excels in his sixth-man role
Once again, Dennis Schröder came off the bench to lead Oklahoma City in scoring.
In 33 minutes of game time (which is much more in line with starter’s minutes than it is with backup minutes), Schröder scored 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting and was the only Oklahoma City player to hit more than one 3-pointer. He had four on a night where the Thunder as whole only made six.
