Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 31 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied late for a 112-105 home win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday.
Down by nine with 8 1/2 minutes to go, the Thunder wound up outscoring the Nuggets 34-19 in the fourth quarter to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Oklahoma City, which overcame a monster game from Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (44 points, 15 rebounds), would advance to the Western Conference finals with a win on Thursday in Denver.
In the closing stages, Oklahoma City turned up the heat on defense, and Luguentz Dort got hot from beyond the arc.
While Denver went more than seven minutes without a field goal, missing nine consecutive shots and turning the ball over twice, Dort hit a trio of 3-pointers to help the Thunder pull close. Oklahoma City tied it 92-92 with 5:42 remaining on Jalen Williams’ two free throws.
A minute later, Dort chased down Gilgeous-Alexander’s missed 3-pointer, batting it to Williams, who found Chet Holmgren for a layup that leveled the score at 94-94.
“I don’t bet against Lu. It’s that simple,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “There’s just a special thing about him. He’s always going to stand back up. He’s not perfect, but he’s always going to respond, and he’s always going to compete.”
The Nuggets didn’t score from the field until Jokic’s putback with just more than three minutes remaining tied the game 98-98.
While Jokic hit shots on three consecutive Denver possessions to keep the Nuggets in it, the Thunder proved to be too much.
After Jokic tied it by sinking a fadeaway 3-pointer with 1:40 remaining, Williams quickly answered with a 3-pointer, Gilgeous-Alexander hit another trey on the next possession, and the Thunder finished the game off at the free-throw line.
“It felt like … it’s about time,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his late 3-pointer.
“I just thought he got more and more composed as the game went on and settled into the game,” Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander. “Despite the fact that the pressure was mounting and it got hotter in there, he got cooler and just settled into it made the right plays and let the game tell him what to do.”
Over the past two games, Oklahoma City outscored Denver 63-37 in the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets used just eight players, with three playing more than 40 minutes. No Thunder player went 40 minutes, prompting a question to Denver interim coach David Adelman about whether his team ran out of gas late.
“You could say it’s fatigue. … It if is fatigue, that’s on me,” Adelman said. “I’m deciding who’s going to run it, who’s going to be out there.”
Jokic had struggled the previous three games, but he was excellent on Tuesday, adding five assists and just two turnovers. Jokic shot 17 of 25 from the field and 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.
“We had a great performance from Nikola, we just have to have a few other guys have a game,” Adelman said.
Jamal Murray added 28 points for the Nuggets.
The Thunder had six players score a dozen or more points, with Williams putting up 18 and Isaiah Hartenstein 15. Williams grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, and Gilgeous-Alexander dished out a game-high seven assists.
While the late stretch stood out for the Thunder, Oklahoma City’s close to the first half was important as well.
The Thunder finished out the first half with nine consecutive points to cut what was an 11-point deficit to two.
–Field Level Media
