Nikola Jokik struggled to make shots and Denver lost the aggressive rebounding battle 18–5, yet Nagets won the game 3 on Oklahoma City and had the opportunity to take commanding lead in their Western Conference semi-final series on Sunday afternoon.
Nagets’ 113–104 overtime victory gave him a 2–1 lead in the series on Friday night, and he would host Game 4 in Danver.
Thunder experienced this situation in the playoffs last year – number 1 seed down and on the road in the second round – and fell into Dallas in six matches. Sunday will be a feeling of frustration that should be similar to the performance of Oklahoma City’s Game 2, when it won by 43 points.
Thunder is a plus -32 in this series, yet two of the first three matches are defeated, and the disadvantages are the same -the lack of execution in the fourth quarters, which allowed an outmanding Danver team to escape by relying on his championship experience.
Oklahoma City Star and potential MVP Shaai Gilgeous-Aexander scored only three points in the fourth quarter when he shot 1-for-8 from the ground, and he did not attempt a field goal in overtime.
“The game slows down, the execution matters more. In those moments when the game slows down, it usually comes down to make and drama your best players,” Gilgas-Alexander said. “I did not do a good job of this.”
Despite the taunting taunting from the fans of Nagets, he is unbreakable in Game 4.
“Nothing is written,” he said. “The series is not over.”
His colleagues have not lost confidence, either.
Alex Karuso said, “We have not clearly won a championship.
Nagets have done two of the first three matches, even though Thunder disappointed Jokik. He dropped the game 2, missed 10 of all his 3-point attempts on Friday night and was 8-for-25 from the ground.
He made both his shot attempts during the overtime period, but missed a potential game-winner at the end of the fourth quarter.
Oklahoma City has mixed its defense on a three -time MVP, bottled it in paint and forced it to the periphery. Jokik has dealt with almost every situation of his career, but he has not solved the protecting the thunder.
“I don’t know what they are doing,” he said about the rescue of the Thunder. “Because if I knew, perhaps I am not making those types of mistakes. So I need to find out what they are doing.”
It moved deep from 21 points to 5-for-6 to tie Aaron Gordon’s 3-pointer in the last minute of the regulation and to save Denver from Michael Porter Junior.
Porter’s game has been inconsistent, in large parts, for a sprain left shoulder that he has wrapped during the game. He said that he took an injection of lidocaine in his sick joint, which normally requires six weeks to fix. He said that the missing time was not an option.
“I knew that I was not doing this,” said Porter.
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