The reality of the Nuggets’ fate in the no-nonsense Western Conference could be determined by how well the team employs these two words: hard work.

We witnessed Denver successfully engage this mantra in their home opener, but more recently fans have witnessed the opposite. Jus three games into the season, it’s clear the Nuggets will go nowhere without hard work.

Queue highlights from the 117-93 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night.

The Thunder amassed 48 points in the paint and beat the Nuggets on the fast-breal by nine points. Oklahoma City looked especially explosive in third quarter, where they outscored the Nuggets 37-20.

“They were playing harder,” coach Michael Malone said of the Thunder in the third quarter. “I thought they got a lot of loose balls. They were aggressive, they were in attack mode.”

The Nuggets were neither of those things and the result was their widest margin of defeat on the young season.

Sure, the Nuggets are a little dinged up, missing two potential starters. Wilson Chandler is likely out for a few weeks with a strained hip and Jusuf Nurkic is still recovering from patella tendon surgery that took place in May.

Even with Chandler and Nurkic in the lineup, this Nuggets team is not talented enough to beat teams like the Thunder if they get outworked; plain and simple.

Hustle is of high-priority, and we saw in the season opener what happens when the Nuggets put that idea to use. The result could very well be a Kenneth Faried rejection on a second-chance layup, as seen below:

Denver showcased their own version of the blowout, beating the Rockets 105-85 in the opener. Malone credited the energy and hustle plays of his team for the win.

“As long as we’re defending, running, rebounding and attacking, I think good things are going to happen for us,” Malone said.

If the Nuggets want a shot at competing in the Western Conference playoff race that has already forgotten about them, the hard-working attitude must become a staple of the team.

Calvin Jouard is an intern at Mile High Sports and a student at the University of Denver