The Oklahoma City Thunder wasted an opportunity at another win on Friday as they dropped a 113-104 decision in overtime to the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic had a poor shooting night (8-25 FG, 0-10 3P), but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a rough night as well (7-22 FG, 1-6 3P), and the Thunder managed to make just 9-of-35 (25.7%) from downtown.
The Thunder had plenty of opportunities, but their lack of experience in tight games proved to be their downfall as the championship pedigree of the Nuggets helped Denver in the clutch. Down 2-1 in the series, OKC doesn’t have to win to stick around in the series, but it certainly feels like if they can’t tie the series up, their hopes of advancing in the playoffs are all but gone. The good news is that there are a lot of small adjustments that can take place that could fuel them to a Game 4 win.
OKC’s loss was a lot more than just “not hitting shots.” The offense became stagnant as the game went on, and some of that blame falls on SGA. He seemed to be trying TOO hard to find his shot late, and nobody else for the Thunder seemed to do too much about that aside from Jalen Williams, who had a spectacular performance by scoring 32 points on 11-of-21 shooting.
Defensively, OKC suffered a similar fate to Game 1 as Aaron Gordon hit a wide-open three to tie up the game, forcing overtime. He was just one of 4 Denver starters who scored at least 20 points. The Thunder’s best bet is to keep the pressure on the Nuggets, force some turnovers, and actually convert those into points. While the Game 3 loss was a disappointing one, perhaps it can serve as yet another lesson for this young team to learn from.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 2:30 PM CT
Location: Ball Arena (Denver, Colorado)
Television: ABC
Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal
Twitter: Follow @ZacharyLowNBA for live tweets and discussion during the game
Game Notes: Oklahoma City Thunder Official Game Notes, Denver Nuggets Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Luguentz Dort
- SF: Jalen Williams
- PF: Chet Holmgren
- C: Isaiah Hartenstein
Nuggets
- PG: Jamal Murray
- SG: Christian Braun
- SF: Michael Porter Jr.
- PF: Aaron Gordon
- C: Nikola Jokic
Injury Report
Thunder
- Nikola Topic (left knee surgery) is OUT.
Nuggets
- DaRon Holmes (right Achilles tendon repair) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 30-35 against the Nuggets in the regular season (18-16 at home, 12-19 on the road) and 5-3 in the Playoffs (4-1 at home, 1-2 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series with the Nuggets 7 times, lost it 8 times, and tied it twice.
- The Thunder went 2-2 against the Nuggets in the regular season (1-1 at home, 1-1 on the road).
- OKC trails with Denver 1-2 in the Western Conference Semifinals (1-1 at home, 0-1 on the road).