On a night short on positives for the Nuggets, at least there was Christian Braun.

“Christian Braun was great tonight,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after his team’s 102-87 loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday.

Making the 11th start of his career, and first since Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left Denver for Orlando, Braun matched Nikola Jokic for the team lead in scoring with 16 points on 15 shots.

His most impressive work came on the other end. Braun started the game as the primary defender on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder’s Most Valuable Player candidate. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a game-high 28 points, but he did most of his damage against other defenders. Braun was on Oklahoma City’s star for only three of his 11 made field goals, and one of those came in transition after a turnover.

“We didn’t win,” Braun said, shutting down the notion there was much of a positive to take away from the loss. “I think we had a lot of moments where we were really good on him. We had some really good moments, and we had some moments where we gave up some easy ones. … Defensively, tonight, we did what we needed to do.”

Denver’s issues were offensive, but Braun can’t be blamed. He was the only starter to shoot better than 50% from the field. Despite missing a trio of open 3s, Braun made eight of 12 shots inside the arc.

“Christian Braun is not going to be KCP, so I think we all have to understand that, which I think we do, and embrace ‘CB’ for who he is,” Malone said. “I thought he played really good defense, competed, ran the floor. I thought ‘CB’ did a lot of really good things for us.”

Braun’s first bucket came in transition after he stole an entry pass intended for Chet Holmgren. He later helped Jokic to a triple-double by cutting and finishing a tough, left-handed layup before he again turned defense into easy offense. He blocked a Lu Dort shot, ran the court and made a lefty finger roll for his third bucket.

“Nikola helps you out,” Braun said, again deflecting any credit. “You play with him, you’re pretty wide open. You get some easy ones. That, you know, helps with confidence and things like that. When you see an easy layup or two go down right away, you continue to be more aggressive. I think I was aggressive tonight.”

The rest of Braun’s five makes all came inside or a step outside the restricted area. Of his eight made shots, five were assisted by Jokic.

“He’s really good in transition. He’s a good defender. He’s attacking the paint downhill,” Jokic said after a 16-point, 13-assist, 12-rebound triple-double.

“Today, he played good. … He did good things.”

As true as that is, Braun isn’t worried about much outside of wins and losses, and the Nuggets are taking an 0-1 record into the 12th start of his young career.

Denver hosts the Clippers at Ball Arena on Saturday.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure on me,” Braun said.

“They ask me to do things that are pretty easy: go out there and play hard. I can do that. We’ve got to play better as a team. That’s all it was. We didn’t get the win, and that’s what matters to me. I think that’s what I’ll be judged by most importantly is wins and how we do in the regular season and the playoffs.”