The Oklahoma City Thunder are off to the conference finals. After a 125-93 win in Game 7 of their second-round series against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, they will host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday.
The Thunder, who had the league's best defense in the regular season, suffocated Denver defensively. After a slow start, Oklahoma City outscored Denver 90-48 from the 0:50 mark of the first quarter until the 9:36 mark of the fourth, at which point the Nuggets pulled their starters.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a game-high 35 points (12-19 FG, 3-4 3PT, 8-9 FT), plus three rebounds, four assists, three steals, a block and zero turnovers in 36 minutes. Jalen Williams scored 17 of his 24 points in the second quarter and added five rebounds, seven assists and a steal in 33 minutes. Alex Caruso had one of the best 11-point, three-assist performances you will ever see -- he changed the game defensively as soon as he checked in, and he was plus-40 in 26 minutes. Cason Wallace, who was plus-38 in 29 minutes, was extremely disruptive on defense, too.
Denver's Nikola Jokić scored a team-high 20 points (5-9 FG, 1-2 3PT, 9-11 FT) and recorded nine rebonds, seven assists and five turnovers in 37 minutes. Christian Braun added 19 points (7-14 FG, 2-9 3PT, 3-4 FT) in 33 minutes. The Nuggets were not comfortable offensively, though, and they didn't get what they needed from Jamal Murray (13 points on 6-for-16 shooting, 1-for-8 from deep), or Michael Porter Jr. (six points on 3-for-8 shooting, 0-for-4 from deep). Aaron Gordon started and logged 25 minutes despite having a Grade 2 hamstring strain, and he finished with eight points on 2-for-4 shooting and 11 rebounds, including four on the offensive glass.
The stat that tells the story: Denver turned the ball over 22 times. Sixteen of those were live-ball turnovers.
You just can't do that against the Thunder.
Here are a few takeaways from Game 7:
The Carushow
I wondered if Oklahoma City might start Caruso in this game. Coach Mark Daigneault didn't go that route, but, after watching him cause chaos in 15 first-half minutes, he put him on the court in place of big man Isaiah Hartenstein at the beginning of the second half. With Caruso on the floor, the Nuggets -- usually an elite offensive team with Jokić on the court -- had trouble even initiating offense.
"He's special," Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN's Lisa Salters in a walkout interview. "His hands, his smarts, he knows what everyone's supposed to do in our offense and their offense at all times, and that's why he's a really good defensive player. Every team in the league would love to have a guy like that, and we're one of those teams."
The Thunder overwhelmed Denver with physicality, athleticism and speed. This wasn't all Caruso, obviously -- the team is as stacked defensively as any team in the history of the league -- but Caruso set the tone. He is listed at 6-foot-5 and 186 pounds, but when he matched up with Jokić, he made it difficult for the three-time MVP to even catch the ball.
Caruso finished with three steals, but this doesn't come close to capturing his impact on that end of the floor. It's worth noting that Lu Dort, who finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, played only 17 minutes -- this was largely because Caruso wreaking havoc.
Earlier in the series, Caruso had battled Jokić one-on-one on occasion. In Game 7, though, he was Jokić's primary defender for extended stretches.
"The volume of it today was the result of how effective it was," Daigneault told reporters. "But looking at it was a priority going into today and he did an unbelievable job individually. Then, if you're putting a 6-5 guard on a player like that, you need relentless help and relentless pressure on the entry passes, and it all works together. So he had an amazing effort individually, but that truly -- when you're going to expose yourself like that -- it truly is a team defense to make that effective and the guys executed the hell out of that."
Instead of leaning on two-big lineups, Daigneault also limited Hartenstein to 17 minutes and didn't play Jaylin Williams until garbage time. This caused problems for Oklahoma City on the defensive glass, but it more than made up for that -- by grabbing a ton of offensive rebounds themselves and dominating the turnover battle, the Thunder won the possession game handily.
"They kept bringing new people in and they did overwhelm us," Nuggets interim coach David Adelman told reporters. "The turnovers were a huge issue in this game, obviously, and sometimes turnovers are -- the number doesn't matter, but 16 steals, that's live-ball turnovers, that's dunks, that's 37 points off your mistakes. You're not going to win a playoff game like that. So I give them a lot of credit. They were the aggressor."
Nuggets are 'a bunch of zombies'
After eliminating the Nuggets, Daigneault lauded them.
"They displayed the mettle of a champion," Daigneault said.
Denver was extremely banged-up. It did not have the depth of Oklahoma City, and it definitely did not have the same kind of defensive personnel, either. Despite this, coming off a seven-game series against the Los Angeles Clippers, they pushed the Thunder to seven games. Their zone defense, in particular, gave OKC problems in the halfcourt.
"The run to this point and the run they gave us was impressive," Daigneault said. "They're a bunch of zombies, and we have the ultimate respect for their team. And we're better now than we were at the beginning of the series, and it's because of them. They pushed us to the limit."
Adelman pointed out that the Nuggets had a 21-10 lead in the first quarter. At that point, the Thunder were missing their 3s and they weren't getting out in transition. Denver had a chance to extend the lead and put OKC in a hole, but it all went sideways quickly.
"It felt like we just could not push that thing out," Adelman said. "That felt like the score for four minutes. That was our opportunity to really take control of the game."
Adelman said he was "crushed for the guys in there" because of the effort the Nuggets had put forth. They had "the start that we wanted," but could not stay steady against the Thunder's defense.
"It's a relentless defensive team," Adelman said. "They seem like they're always fresh 'cause they are. 'Cause they can rotate people in an out, it presents challenges. They can play small, they can play big, they can go any way they want to with their roster. It makes it hard. And I actually thought our guys did a great job of kind of reacting on the fly in a lot of these games. And the two games that got away from us, it was turnovers. And they caused 'em. and when they have run-out dunks and you can't set your defense, all the impact that we had with our zone and all the things we were doing doesn't matter."
Denver was able to create clean looks from 3-point range. It couldn't make them, though, and those shots weren't necessarily comfortable.
"It was just such a catalyst for us, the pressure, the deflections, the turnovers," Daigneault said. "And even when they got shots, I thought the pressure and the help really disrupted the rhythm of those shots. And the guys just did a great job of sifting through all the noise of a Game 7 and just focusing on what we needed to do to win and we really executed it."
Adelman said he would not use poor health as an excuse for the loss.
"We got beat," he said. "And if we were that tired late, we certainly weren't tired early."
Going forward, though, he said the Nuggets will need to make it a priority to be healthier this time of year. In addition to Gordon's injury, Porter was dealing with a sprained left shoulder and Murray was dealing with an illness.
"As these guys get older year by year, we're going to have to maintenance them," Adelman said. "And if you're going to play a young team like that that has unbelievable depth, very good coaching staff -- obviously Mark does a great job -- you have to have the freshest version of yourself. And that's part of the reason why I'm so proud of these guys to get this to seven. I mean we grinded through this. The Clippers series was the same way: Grind long enough to give yourself an opportunity. And today was the same way. It went the exact opposite way as the Clipper game, but you can't win these games unless you get to them."
Gordon gutted it out
Gordon was not himself physically on Sunday, but he made it onto the court and contributed. His performance was more reminiscent of James Harden playing heavy minutes on a Grade 2 hamstring strain in the 2021 playoffs than OG Anunoby's five-minute appearance with a similar injury in a Game 7 last season. Given that he couldn't sprint and didn't have much lift, it was amazing to watch.
"Aaron Gordon is incredible," Adelman said. "What he played with today, I don't know may people that would even attempt to go out there and run up and down, and he did it in Game 7 against Oklahoma City on the road. That was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen."
Gordon was "extremely close to not playing," according to Adelman.
"I was surprised that they said, 'No, he's a go, he's gonna start.' I knew there was a chance, but in the back of your mind, you're kind of planning, 'I don't think he's going to have it,' " Adelman said. "The guy had eight rebounds at the half. He almost had a double-double. He went up and down in that kind of pain, shot the ball -- one 3 in front of our bench looked so comfortable. It's just a testament to his toughness."
Denver needs to make tweaks to its roster in the offseason. It needs depth, and it needs shooting. Gordon, however, has solidified his place on the team. Before this gutsy, memorable showing in Game 7, he improved his free throw shooting and 3-point shooting significantly this season, which is almost unheard of for a 29-year-old in Year 11. And with the season on the line, he did everything he possibly could to help the team.
"He gave us more than I think we all could ask for," Murray said.
