When the Western Conference semifinal series between the Thunder, the best team in the NBA in the regular season (68-14) and the Nuggets, began, all eyes were on the duel between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic, the two leading candidates for MVP. What no one expected was that both would fail on the same day. They did so in the third game of the series, in which Denver survived its star’s bad night and won 113-104 in overtime against the Thunder.
In a game of maximum equality, the Nuggets held on in the final minutes in which the Oklahoma star wanted to resolve on his own and was hasty. Aaron Gordon tied the game with a three-pointer with 26.7 seconds left. Shai missed and so did Jokic, who had grabbed the rebound (102-102). And in overtime, the Thunder were only able to score one basket (Holmgren) with Gordon and the Serbian deciding with four points (11-2).
Jokic’s most ‘horribilis’ night
Jokic finished with 20 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 44 minutes, outstanding statistics for anyone, but not for him, especially when breaking down his failures. It was the worst playoff game of his career in field goal shooting with 32% (8/25), in which he missed the most shots (17), in which he missed the most three-pointers (0/10) and in which he committed the most turnovers (8). And yet he scored four points in overtime (more than all the Thunder) and his team won.
In fact, even on his worst night, the Serbian equaled a legend like Charles Barkley in playoff games with at least 15 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks. He also entered the league’s black history books as the third player to achieve 15 or more rebounds in a playoff game and have missed 10 or more three-pointers in the same game. Interestingly, the other was Jayson Tatum of the Celtics earlier this week.
Luckily for the Nuggets, Jokic was not alone. Aaron Gordon with 22 points (3/5 2P, 4/6 3P and 4/4 FT), eight rebounds, five assists and a steal was sensational. Also Jamal Murray with 27 points (7/14 2P, 2/5 3P and 7/8 FT), four rebounds and eight assists and Michael Porter Jr with 21 points (2/4 2P, 5/6 3P and 2/2 FT), eight rebounds and an assist.
A disastrous and hasty Shai
And if Jokic was not good, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was worse, his great rival for the MVP of the season, who finished with 18 points with a disastrous 7/22 shooting (6/16 two-pointers, 1/6 three-pointers and 3/5 free throws), 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. But beyond his statistics, he was completely wrong to try to solve on his own in the last minutes of regulation time and in overtime.
The best of the Thunder was Jalen Williams with 32 points (8/14 t2, 3/7 t3 and 7/8 tl), 3 rebounds and 5 assists. Also noteworthy was the contribution of Chet Holmgren, who scored 18 points (1/6 three-pointers), 16 rebounds, a steal and three blocks, and Isaiah Hartenstein, with 10 points (5/14 tc), 10 rebounds and 4 assists. All of this was insufficient for Oklahoma, who find themselves trailing in the series (1-2) and on Sunday night (21.30 h) will play again in Denver to try to close the gap.
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