DENVER (AP) — Maybe it was tired legs after a physical overtime game about 36 hours before. Or perhaps it had something to do with the early tipoff time Sunday.
Instead of swishes, there were far more clanks by the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder in the first quarter of Game 4. Their slumbering offenses combined for 25 points to open the game, matching the record for the fewest in the opening quarter of an NBA playoff game in the shot clock era.
The score after 12 minutes of action: Thunder 17, Nuggets 8. The last time two teams combined for that low of a score after the opening period in the postseason was April 21, 2002, when Detroit led Toronto 16-9.
Portland (14) and Utah (11) also combined for just 25 on May 20, 1999.
The teams were playing on a short turnaround after Denver’s 113-104 win in overtime on Friday night. Every Nuggets starter was on the floor at least 42 minutes in that game. The Thunder had three players log more than 40 minutes.
The fatigue appeared to take a toll early — late, too — in a game the Thunder won 92-87 to even the second-round series at 2-2. Game 5 is Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
“Both teams were very tired coming off an unbelievably physical overtime battle late Friday night,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman explained. “If it affected us, it surely affected them as well. Both of us had super-tired legs.”
With so many misses, clanks and airballs, it looked straight out of a Sunday morning pickup game at the rec center. The Thunder and Nuggets combined for 8-for-44 shooting in the first quarter. That’s 18.2%.
It was even worse from farther out. Denver was 0 for 14 from 3-point range, while the Thunder were 1 of 11.
Things never got too much better. The combined shooting percentage of 33.5% was the worst in a playoff game in 21 years. Detroit and Indiana combined to shoot 30.8% on May 21, 2004, a game the Pistons won 72-67.
Both coaches maintained before the game the early start — just after 1:30 p.m. local time — wouldn’t make much of a difference.
“It’s the same time for them. It’s the same rest for them,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Neither team is at an advantage or disadvantage with that. We really don’t think about it. It’s an equal playing field today for both teams.”
Both teams combined for more turnovers (9) than made baskets (8) in the first quarter. There were so many misses that Nikola Jokic had six rebounds in the opening frame, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren each had five.
Jokic tried to put a positive spin on it.
“They scored 17 so our defense was kind of good, too,” said Jokic, who finished with 27 points, including two 3-pointers and 11 of 14 from the free throw line, to go with with 13 rebounds.
The only game in NBA history with fewer points in a first quarter was March 31, 1954, when Syracuse led Minneapolis 13-10 after the opening period of that season’s NBA Finals. The NBA voted to adopt a shot clock about three weeks later, and it was utilized in the league for the first time in the 1954-55 season.
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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.
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