OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 factors, and the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 112-105 on Tuesday night time to go up 3-2 of their Western Convention semifinal sequence.
Oklahoma Metropolis overcame a 44-point, 15-rebound night time from Denver’s Nikola Jokić.
The Thunder can clinch the sequence on Thursday in Denver.
Gilgeous-Alexander made 12 of 23 discipline targets and bounced again from a gradual begin to lead six gamers in double figures.
“What the good gamers do is that they rise within the face of these challenges and adversities,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault mentioned. “And I simply thought he bought increasingly more composed as the sport went on. And even if the strain was mounting and it bought hotter in there, he bought cooler and simply sort of settled into it, made the correct performs, let the sport inform him what to do.”
Jokić made 17 of 25 pictures.
Denver’s Jamal Murray scored 28 factors, however he made simply 10 of 27 pictures.
No different Denver participant scored greater than 13 factors.
“This can be a actually disappointing loss,” Denver interim coach David Adelman mentioned. “The fellows in there needs to be upset. It’s a heavy loss and we have now to bounce again shortly to win Sport 6 and provides ourselves an opportunity to come back again, have a recreation like this, however end it.”
Oklahoma Metropolis ran out to a 12-2 lead, and it regarded prefer it would possibly end up just like the Thunder’s blowout victory in Sport 2.
Denver made one among its first 9 pictures, and that was a putback by Jokić.
Denver rallied and led by 11 within the second quarter, however Oklahoma Metropolis closed robust and trailed 56-54 at halftime.
Jokić had 19 factors and 9 rebounds earlier than the break.
Murray scored 13 factors within the third quarter and Jokić added 12 to assist the Nuggets take an 86-78 lead into the fourth.
Nonetheless, there have been missed alternatives.
“It felt like each time we had an opportunity to return up 12, or get it again at 14, we wouldn’t make the shot they usually’d run out and make a basket or rating in transition,” Adelman mentioned. “So it compounded itself.”
Oklahoma Metropolis’s Lu Dort, who scored three whole factors within the first three quarters, hit a trio of 3-pointers in a two-minute span to chop Denver’s result in 92-90 halfway by way of the fourth.
Jokić hit a deep fadeaway 3-pointer to tie the sport at 103 earlier than Oklahoma Metropolis closed it out.
Jalen Williams’ 3-pointer with 1:18 remaining gave the Thunder a 106-103 lead, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s three with 48 seconds to go pushed Oklahoma Metropolis’s result in six.
“I assumed we executed in addition to we have now within the playoffs down the stretch in a detailed recreation,” Daigneault mentioned.
