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 The Denver Nuggets' season was spiraling in the wrong direction,
so the point guard told his teammates they had to change their
defensive mindset.
"I became more vocal in the locker room," he said. "We were giving
up too many things."
His words sunk in, and suddenly the Nuggets are trending upward
after a 107-100 win over the depleted Oklahoma City Thunder on
Wednesday.
Lawson led the way with 15 points and a season-high 15 assists.
Forward Wilson Chandler scored a season-high 21 points, grabbed nine
rebounds and had a key block down the stretch to help the Nuggets
win their second straight and third in the past four.
Denver (4-7) has its first winning streak of the season.
"It's something to build on," Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said, "as
modest as it is."
Forward Serge Ibaka had 22 points and 13 rebounds, and guard
Sebastian Telfair added 18 points off the bench for the Thunder, who
lost their third in a row.
 Both teams got off to poor starts this season for different reasons.
The Thunder are without their two best players -- forward Kevin
Durant and guard Russell Westbrook -- and are struggling to replace
their scoring and overall play. Oklahoma City (3-10) is leaning on
its defense to stay in games.
One of the Thunder's three wins came against Denver three weeks ago,
starting the Nuggets' six-game losing streak. Denver lost four times
by double digits, culminating in a 17-point setback in which the
Trail Blazers scored 84 points in the first half.
That led to fan grumblings about Shaw's job, but two wins on a
three-game weekend road trip quieted the talk. Wednesday's game
helped, too.
"I thought it was the best thing for us to be out on the road after
the performance we had our last home game," Shaw said. "I thought
our guys were pressing a little bit. The road was good to us."
The Nuggets, save for a bad quarter in New York on Sunday, were able
to shore up their defense following Lawson's talk.
"Most good defensive teams make sure there's one thing they're not
going to do, like get in the paint or threes, but we were trying to
do it all," Lawson said. "I was like, 'Let's make sure they don't
get 50 or 60 paint points.' We'll live and die with the three. Not
too many times is a team going to beat you scoring 50 points or 60
points from three. If we just keep doing that, we're going to be
good."
Denver outscored Oklahoma City 46-32 in the paint.
The Nuggets shot 48.8 percent from the floor against a stingy
defense thanks to 15-of-23 shooting in the third quarter.
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"Defensively, it wasn't good for us tonight," Thunder coach Scott
Brooks said. "I know Denver is a very difficult team to guard. Their
point guard is as fast as any guard in the league, and he was
getting by our guy too easily and kicking out for open shots."
Denver, which led 54-49 at intermission, quickly went up by 15
behind Chandler and Lawson. Chandler had eight points and four
rebounds in the period, and Lawson dished out six assists.
Oklahoma City subbed in its bench but couldn't slow down Denver.
Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried celebrated his 25th birthday with a
put-back dunk that made it 83-69, and forward Danilo Gallinari
nailed a 3-pointer with a second left in the quarter to give Denver
an 88-74 lead heading into the fourth.
"They collapsed our defense the whole game. They got deep
penetration and took advantage of our mishaps," Thunder center
Steven Adams said. "We weren't good enough in our coverage. That led
to their inside scoring."
Center Timofey Mozgov, who scored 17 points, had two of his three
blocks in the third quarter.
The margin grew to 16 in the first minute of the fourth before
Oklahoma City rallied. The Thunder cut it to three on Ibaka's
3-pointer with 3:15 left, and guard Reggie Jackson missed a
3-pointer that would have tied it. Denver responded with threes by
Chandler and guard Arron Afflalo, and Chandler's block on guard
Anthony Morrow sealed the win.
NOTES: Oklahoma City G Reggie Jackson grew up in Colorado Springs.
He played prep basketball at Palmer High School before moving on to
Boston College. ... Nuggets F J.J. Hickson was dressed after sitting
out Monday's win in Cleveland, though he did not play. Hickson, who
is coming off ACL surgery in the spring, is restricted from playing
in back-to-back games. ... The Thunder is fifth in the NBA in
opponents' field-goal percentage. Oklahoma City is holding teams to
42.2 percent shooting. ... The Nuggets improved to 2-3 at home. Two
seasons ago, Denver went 38-3 at home on its way to 57 overall wins.
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