It was a rough night for the men who will finish one-two in the MVP voting:
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 18 points on 7-of-22 shooting, plus he struggled down the stretch (but he did have 13 rebounds).
• Nikola Jokic shot 8-of-25, including 0-of-10 from 3, on his way to 20 points and eight turnovers (but he did have 16 rebounds).
The difference was Denver’s role players stepped up, starting with Aaron Gordon, who scored 17 points and hit the clutch 3-pointer that forced overtime.
In overtime it was all Nuggets, who started the extra frame on a 7-0 run and never looked back, getting the 113-104 win.
The Nuggets lead the series 2-1 with a critical Game 4 on Sunday night in Denver.
It wasn’t just Gordon who stepped up on Jokic’s off night. Jamal Murray led Denver with 27 points, while Michael Porter Jr. had a clutch 21. In critical moments, the Nuggets can always fall back on the Murray/Jokic pick-and-roll, and good things just happen from that.
More than just scoring, the Nuggets got stops down the stretch, with Oklahoma City scoring just two points in overtime. Part of that was the inexperience of the Thunder, who hunted mismatches and tried to run isolations off of them, but ultimately, that led to them being stagnant on offense and not getting enough ball movement. When they did get the chance, the Thunder just missed.
That happened all night. As a team, Oklahoma City shot just 38.5%, and they were 9-of-35 (25.7%) from 3. Chet Holmgren was 1-of-6 from beyond the arc, as was Gilgeous-Alexander. The one bright spot for the Thunder was Jalen Williams, who scored 32 points on 11-of-21 and was impressive all night.
The stories of this game were the Thunder’s cold shooting again, and the championship execution of the Nuggets down the stretch. Denver looked like the team that had been there before.
Oklahoma City needs to get its shots falling and execute better down the stretch Sunday in Game 4 or the Thunder may be in a hole too deep to climb out of.
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