After losing five of six games, the Denver Nuggets have now rattled off three-straight wins with their most recent victory coming on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder by a score of 105-98.

Gary Harris ended up being unavailable due to left ankle soreness, Nikola Jokic struggled scoring from everywhere, and Denver nearly collapsed in the second half, but behind another stellar defensive performance, the Nuggets managed to improve to 13-7 after their first 20 games of the year.

Here are five takeaways from the Nuggets massive road victory.

Torrey Craig fills in admirably for injured Gary Harris

A day before the Nuggets went into Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City to face the Thunder, the Nuggets were facing off against the Orlando Magic. At the very end of the game, Nuggets starting shooting guard Gary Harris went to the locker room early. Fast forward to the next morning and Harris emerged on the injury report with left ankle soreness which put his availability against the Thunder in question.

Harris ended up not playing against the Thunder so Nuggets head coach Michael Malone inserted Torrey Craig into the starting lineup with the hopes of getting a strong defensive performance. Craig delivered in a big way as he frustrated Russell Westbrook all night.

Craig was the primary defender on Westbrook for the majority of the game and he was the main reason for Westbrook’s struggles scoring the basketball. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Westbrook was only able to convert six of his 23 shots and was an atrocious 1-of-12 from 3-point distance mostly thanks to Craig.

When Craig was not locking down the former MVP, he was also providing Denver with an offensive boost. Craig may have only scored eight points on eight shot attempts, but that is not where his offensive value came from. The biggest boost that he provided was his 10 rebounds; six of which were on the offensive glass. Craig also had the most important play of the game when he grabbed an offensive rebound and made the put-back layup to extend Denver’s lead to seven points with just 1:06 left in the game. Craig also provided the Nuggets with some insurance with a dunk in transition with 50 seconds left to push Denver’s lead to 11 points.

Between Craig’s high-level defense and his ability to create second-chance point opportunities, it is clear that he did an admirable job of filling in for Harris. Craig

Denver’s dominating defense

There has been a lot of talk about whether Denver’s defense is sustainable over the course of an entire season. At first, it seemed like a flash in a pan; there was no way that Denver, who had been in the bottom-six defenses in the NBA the past four years, would really be able to become a top-five defense in just one offseason.

Now, the Nuggets have played 20 games and they currently are the proud owners of the fourth-best defense in the NBA with a defensive rating of 104 after holding the Thunder to 98 points.

Denver managed to hold Oklahoma City to just 35.9 percent shooting from the field and an abysmal 23.1 percent from 3-point distance. While at first glance it appears that the Thunder were just missing their shots, when watching the game it was clear that a big reason for Oklahoma City’s struggles were because of Denver’s defensive determination.

All ten of the Nuggets players who logged meaningful minutes against the Thunder played extremely hard on the defensive end of the floor. Mason Plumlee had four blocked shots and was flying around at all times. Craig was hounding Westbrook all night and frustrated him every time they were matched up together. Jamal Murray did a good job of making life difficult for whoever he was matched up with. Even Trey Lyles and Monte Morris continued to play great defense off the bench.

Overall, the biggest takeaway when it comes to the Nuggets defense is this: the Nuggets’ roster has boughten in to playing defense with tons of effort. While Denver’s defensive impact may come and go, their effort seems like it is here to stay.

Jamal Murray’s improved defensive impact and playmaking

Jamal Murray has struggled to score efficiently and with committing live-ball turnovers, but those mistakes have overshadowed his improvement in other areas.

While Murray is shooting 41.1 percent from the field and 34.2 percent from 3-point range over the past seven games, his assists, rebounds, and defensive impact are all way up. Over the past seven games, Murray is averaging 6.1 assists against 2.7 turnovers per game, has a defensive rating of 101.2, and has been playing with an immense amount of energy.

Yes, the live-ball turnovers need to stop. Yes, he needs to improve his ability to deal with on-ball pressure. Yes, he still struggles to make particular passes — specifically post-entry passes. That does not mean that Murray has failed to improve in other ways. He is becoming a more complete basketball player each game he plays and, for someone who is still just 21-years-old, he continues to improve at a pretty rapid pace.

If Murray can keep adding to his game like he has in the past seven contests, his future is even brighter than some realize.

Second half collapse

The Nuggets let off the throttle in the second half once again and it almost led to them giving away what should have been a much less stressful win than it was.

By the time halftime arrived, Denver had a whopping 21-point lead and were controlling the game on both ends of the floor. In the first half, Denver had put up an offensive rating of 118.9 and a defensive rating of 79.2. They were dominating in every single aspect and they held Oklahoma City to just 42 first-half points on 29.2 percent shooting from the field and a minuscule 10.5 percent from the three-point line. The Thunder had more turnovers than assists and had absolutely no momentum.

Then, the second half began and everything changed. Suddenly, it was the Nuggets turning the ball over too much and that led to their offense and defense deteriorating at an incredible pace. The Nuggets offense rating in the second half was a rough 87.5 and their defensive rating ballooned to 119.1. The Thunder outscored the Nuggets 56-42 in the second half and cut a 25-point deficit all the way down to just five points late in the fourth quarter.

Obviously, Denver managed to hang on thanks to some timely scoring from Lyles, Murray, and Jokic, but the way Denver is closing games is sketchy. Great teams put away games early instead of allowing their opponents to climb back within striking distance. Denver needs to find ways to close out big games if they want to continue winning frequently.

Nikola Jokic’s struggles

In the last four games, Nikola Jokic is averaging just 12.3 points while shooting an atrocious 32.8 percent from the field and 17.4 percent from 3-point distance. To put it simply, this is arguably Jokic’s worst shooting slump of his career and it is becoming more and more difficult to figure out why he is struggling so much.

His issues continued against the Thunder. Jokic posted 16 points, but he was only able to hit six of his 20 attempted shots. Even worse is the fact that he went 0-for-7 from 3-point distance. Jokic was missing wide open threes, point blank layups, and even a free throw. In addition to his shooting slump, Jokic also had four turnovers against just five assists while also dealing with more foul trouble.

The one positive from Jokic’s lackluster performance against Oklahoma City is that he stayed aggressive even though his shot was not falling. Usually, if Jokic was missing shots as frequently as he was against the Thunder, he would have stopped shooting all together. This time, Jokic kept shooting and was able to muster nine fourth-quarter points to help lead Denver to a massive road victory.

Still, Denver needs their best player to bounce back and they need him to do so soon. Denver has entirely built around Jokic and it is time for him to begin to repay the favor by taking over games as he has done in the past.