The Denver Nuggets got off to a rocky start in the 2026-27 season, falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder in their season opener by a score of 94-86.

The game was a defensive battle with neither team cracking 100 points. After posting a historic offense last season, Denver was held to just 86 points against the Thunder. They scored 87 on two occasions last year in the regular season, but were over 100 in the other 80 games.

Denver’s offense shot just 37% from the field and 26% from three. As a team, they had just 17 assists compared to 22 turnovers.

The Nuggets protected the ball in the first quarter, turning it over just once. It was all downhill after that as they turned it over eight times in the second quarter and 13 times in the second half. The Thunder had ten fast-break points off the turnovers and 21 total points off turnovers.

After the game, Jamal Murray said about the turnovers, "Just rushing. Not trusting what's there, what's already open. I got in the lane and had a floater, and just wasn't reading the play properly. ... If you miss, you miss. Whatever. You air-ball, whatever. So forth. Just play with whatever's open.”

Murray had five turnovers to just three assists. DeMar DeRozan, playing his first game as a member of the Nuggets, had five turnovers and no assists. Nikola Jokic had only two turnovers, but was limited to just five assists.

Not counting the final game of the season, where he played only 18 minutes, Jokic had five assists or fewer in just five games last year.

The Thunder have had one of the best defenses in the league over the past three seasons, and they have thrived off turnovers during that span. They forced 16.7 turnovers per game last year, second-best in the league. In 2024-25, they forced 17 turnovers per game, which was the most in the league.

Turning the ball over against Oklahoma City is simply expected.

The bigger issue is just how disjointed the offense looked in general. The Thunder shut off multiple actions, caused Denver to get into sets late, and forced tough looks or looks they would live with.

As good as the Thunder defense is, there was no reason for the Denver offense to look that poor in the first game of the season.

It’s game one of 82 against the best team in the Western Conference last season. There is no reason to panic, but they need a strong bounce-back performance in game two.