DENVER — The Denver Nuggets knew bouncing again from their 43-point loss would imply hanging with the tubro-charged, top-seeded Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in order that they may faucet into their expertise, house atmosphere and shutting prowess.
And that’s precisely how they received Recreation 3 on Friday evening, beating the Thunder 113-104 in additional time behind 27 factors from Jamal Murray, 22 from Aaron Gordon and 21 from one-armed Michael Porter Jr., who had his finest sport since spraining his left shoulder within the first sport of the playoffs.
Similar to in Recreation 1, which they stole on Gordon’s 3-pointer on the finish, the Nuggets trailed many of the evening and led by not more than two factors in regulation earlier than happening an 11-2 run within the additional interval when the high-flying Thunder cashed in on simply one in all their 9 possessions.
“I do believe late in games you can rely on what you’ve seen and felt and done,” interim coach David Adelson mentioned of the Nuggets, who’re two years faraway from an NBA title.
The Nuggets took a 2-1 lead within the Western Convention semifinal collection regardless of an off-night from Nikola Jokic, who had eight turnovers and missed 17 of 25 photographs, together with all 10 of his 3-pointers.
He completed with 20 factors, 16 rebounds and 6 assists.
“I mean, 20, 16 and six, what an awful NBA night,” cracked Adelman.
“I’m sure he’s frustrated,” Adelman added, “when you’re so efficient, maybe arguably one of the most efficient players to ever play any sport. Yeah, I get it. I get why he’s frustrated. But Game 4 is going to come and he’s going to touch it a million times. Hope he shoots it all the time.”
Recreation 4 is Sunday at Ball Area.
Jokic began the additional time flourish with a finger-roll layup and the Nuggets by no means trailed once more.
“It’s obviously lousy to lose,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault mentioned. “But you can take a lot away, and we want to be a team that’s improving through the series. … I thought we did a lot of good things — did a lot of good things on (Jokic). It was a really hard-fought game by both teams. It wasn’t an easy game for anybody.”
The opposite NBA MVP front-runner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, additionally had a troublesome evening, lacking 15 of twenty-two photographs, going 1 for six from deep and ending with 18 factors.
Jalen Williams led OKC with 32 factors and Chet Holmgren chipped in 18.
It was tied at 102 after regulation, and each Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic missed potential winners within the closing seconds of regulation.
SGA missed a 12-foot jumper with 3 seconds left, and Joker missed a 19-footer on the buzzer.
“Losses always sting, especially in the playoffs,” Daigneault mentioned. “But what I would say is we are in the process of becoming a great team, and we’ve checked a lot of boxes in that process. One thing that it takes to be a great team is you get taken to the limit in the playoffs, and you’ve got a rise to the challenges that you’re confronted with.”
