The Thunder’s 119-107 loss to the Nuggets in Game 6 Thursday night was unlike OKC’s previous two losses in the series. This game was not given away by the Thunder. The Thunder was overpowered by the Nuggets, and the report card is not pretty. OKC did not do a lot of things well:
Game 7
Denver at Oklahoma City
2:30 p.m. Sunday
ESPN, KYAL-97.1
Defensive pressure: C
The Thunder waited too long to play desperate. Through three quarters, the Nuggets had just eight turnovers; the Thunder had 11. OKC is not built to lose the turnover game. Through three quarters, Denver outscored the Thunder 17-11 in points off turnovers. The final period was more like the Thunder; Denver committed eight turnovers, though one was a shot-clock violation that really wasn’t a shot-clock violation and one was a shot-clock violation in the final 10 seconds of the game. The final tally? Each team had 17 points off turnovers. That’s a battle the Thunder must win.
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Thunder Nuggets Basketball
Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drives to the basket as Denver forward Michael Porter Jr., left, and guard Christian Braun defend in the first half of Game 6. David Zalubowski, AP
SGA usage rate: C
Here are the number of possessions finished off by the game’s prime players. Jamal Murray 27. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 23. Nikola Jokic 21. Jalen Williams 19. That makes some sense most nights, since the Thunder has the deeper team and more weapons. But on a night when OKC wasn’t shooting well, it seemed prudent to get Gilgeous-Alexander more heavily involved.
Stamina: C
Give the Nuggets credit. Their tired bodies didn’t give out. The four players with the most minutes in Game 6 all wore Denver white. Murray played 42:20, Jokic 40:50, Christian Braun 39:18 and Aaron Gordon 38:14. The Thunder’s highest-minute player was Jalen Williams, 37:47. Foul trouble cut Gilgeous-Alexander’s total to 34:58. The Thunder must take advantage of the fatigue factor, but that didn’t happen Thursday night. Denver got a huge boost from Julian Strawther, who barely had played in this series but scored 15 points in the final 14 minutes of the game, offsetting what had been a routine massive advantage for the Thunder bench. OKC’s reserves outscored Denver’s just 32-27. Coming into Game 6, the Thunder had outscored Denver’s bench 169-110 in the series.
Daigneault decisions: B
In the second quarter, leaving Gilgeous-Alexander in the game with three fouls seemed goofy, especially when SGA needlessly picked up his fourth foul with 1:29 left in the half. But in reality, Mark Daigneault’s decision wasn’t horrible. Gilgeous-Alexander was whistled for his third foul with 3:59 left; Jokic’s subsequent foul shots brought Denver within 49-46. Daigneault left SGA on the court, and the Thunder responded with its best stretch of the game, a 9-0 run, fueled by six straight Gilgeous-Alexander points. SGA’s fourth foul fueled a 12-0 Denver run to tie the game. But without Gilgeous-Alexander, no way does OKC build that 12-point lead. And the way the second half played out — no fouls by Gilgeous-Alexander — meant the early fourth foul wasn’t huge. SGA played 18:53 of the second half, and it would have been 19:33 if he hadn’t subbed out in the last 40 seconds. You can argue that Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as aggressively defensively, but like has been pointed out, the Thunder wasn’t aggressive enough in the first half.
Shooting: D
Calling an optometrist, calling an optometrist. The Thunder is off target. The Thunder shooting is just off in this series. And nobody believes it’s the Denver defense. OKC made just 10-of-16 foul shots in Game 6. The Thunder was 11-of-40 on 3-pointers, and its 3-point percentage in the series fell to .326. No starter is shooting above .300 from deep in the series — Luguentz Dort is .298, SGA .269, Chet Holmgren .250 and Jalen Williams .212.
Non-Jokic minutes: D
All season long, Denver has disintegrated when Jokic rests. But the Nuggets have hung tough in this series when their superstar sits, and it happened again in Game 6. Jokic sat for 7:10, with stints at the beginning of the second and fourth quarter, and Denver outscored OKC 13-12 during that time. The Thunder has to take more advantage of when Denver is without Jokic.
Big men: A
Isaiah Hartenstein, Holmgren and Jaylin Williams produced good numbers. They were not hollow numbers. All played well. Offensively, they combined to make 15 of 23 shots. Holmgren had 19 points and 11 rebounds, Hartenstein made all four of his shots and Williams made three of five. Williams continues to impress. He’s not being bulled over by Jokic. But Williams played just 2:10 in the second half. More minutes for Arkansas? The main downside to the big men was Denver outscored OKC by 17 points in Hartenstein’s 25 minutes. But Hartenstein’s defense on Jokic remains about as good as anyone could expect. Jokic was 6-of-8 shooting with Hartenstein on the court, and none of Jokic’s 12 foul shots came with Hartenstein on the court. Jokic is impossible to stop, but Hartenstein seems to limit his looks.
Rebounding: D
The biggest discrepancy in the game was not the foul line, where the Nuggets outscored the Thunder 27-10. Defending Jokic is going to create foul problems. The biggest discrepancy was in second-chance points, where Denver outscored OKC 27-10. In the second half, the Nuggets’ edge was 14-4. In the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, with the Thunder desperate to rally, all seven Denver points were off offensive rebounds. The Nuggets retained possessions 15 times off their missed shots, the Thunder just eight. And Denver made eight of 11 shots after offensive rebounds. Otherwise, the Nuggets made just 42.7% of their shots.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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