DENVER — Those sounds: the clamoring from a thirsty Denver crowd, the roars of exhilaration from Jamal Murray’s motivated lips. Those looks: the smirk that escaped the otherwise stiff Nikola Jokic during his exit to the tunnel, the loss of color and life from Jalen Williams’ expression. Those are the signs of what Alex Caruso was fearful of.
Giving the Nuggets hope.
“You don’t wanna give a team fighting for their life any hope or belief,” Caruso warned hours before Game 6, ahead 3-2 in the Western Conference semifinals then. “Probably the most dangerous thing you can do.”
Invoke danger the Thunder did. Ball Arena was sent into a frenzy by an equal dose of hope and belief. Hope that a Game 7 was possible. Belief that it could stomp the Thunder, 119-107, to unlock it.
“Yeah, I said ‘give them hope,’” Caruso recalled to The Oklahoman Wednesday night. “It’s not up to us. They have (a) championship mindset. They were always going to come out and throw punches and haymakers tonight. Jamal Murray flexing to the crowd — you can see the emotion and energy that they were playing with.”
The door of hope was thrust open as soon as the second quarter.
Inside the period, Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams each picked up their third foul. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander picked up his fourth.
In all non-Game 2 performances this series — when he played 30 minutes in a blowout Thunder win — SGA has played at least 38 minutes. He played 35 on Thursday. Contact and time were his greatest enemies, a 32-point, six-assist night on 11-of-16 shooting to show for it.
His fourth whistle was preventable, a swipe at Jokic after losing the ball. A handful of Jaylin Williams and Hartenstein’s fouls stemmed from jumping near Jokic — who finished with an efficient 29 points and 14 boards, attempting 12 free throws — while he made his way to the rim in slow motion.
SGA and Hartenstein opened the half seemingly avoiding drivers underneath the rim like they were attempting to dodge a laser security system.
“We had some dumb fouls that we could’ve prevented,” Jaylin Williams told The Oklahoman. “Nothing really changed. We just gotta be smarter with our contact.”
And yet, OKC still found itself in the driver’s seat after that: a 12-point lead with two minutes to play in the first half in a game where that kind of deficit felt worth a fortune.
That lead was erased in those two minutes.
With a pair of Christian Braun 3-pointers. With a steady flow of rim attempts from Denver.
Belief seemingly coursed through Murray’s bloodstream before Mucinex ever got the chance to. He began Thursday listed as questionable with an illness, something coach David Adelman apparently caught wind of earlier that morning.
Murray finished the night with 27 points, seven assists and eight rebounds. He dazzled with marvelous shotmaking, without a jumper worth sneezing at. Perhaps the sideline was contaminated when he nearly crowd surfed at the end of the third quarter; he flexed and grimaced in their air space after a 10-second sequence saw him score a fastbreak layup and draw a pivotal foul to swing the end of the third.
He wore the emotions of Denver’s Game 6 push. But they all floated to the top with the way the Nuggets closed that third quarter.
If potential elimination games call for an unsung hero, Nuggets guard Julian Strawther was that. Twice in this series, Strawther played less than five minutes. Once he picked up a DNP. But Thursday, he pumped air into Denver’s season.
In just over a minute, he scored eight points: two 3s and a funky lob. Arson-worthy for the Denver faithful, migraine-inducing for a Thunder squad aiming to wipe its hands with this round.
The Nuggets’ lead went from three. To five. To eight. To 10. All in lung-crushing time.
“When halftime ends, you get 24 minutes to play your best, regardless of what just happened,” Daigneault said. “We had that opportunity. So did they. They outplayed us in the second half.”
Despite Oklahoma City’s most recent couple closes, and despite Gilgeous-Alexander’s gradual control over his performance in the series, the comeback didn’t happen. Jalen Williams, the Thunder’s rightful second All-Star, finished 3 of 16 for a series-low six points.
It capped off a 10-of-43 stretch in his past three games. He refused to excuse his wrist. He sat hidden behind his Thunder teammates while the final seconds dwindled, his towel wrapped over his head, his stare stuck on his process. The Nuggets won and cheered, the Thunder swallowed defeat and filed to the back halls — all while Williams remained glued to the bench. Unsatisfied. Stuck like stone.
“I just hurt us tonight not making shots,” he said postgame.
Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder couldn’t outplay hope.
Now it’s all they have. About as much as they can count on.
The Thunder can scrape together three Game 7s between this core. Its eventful, historically great, record-shattering season depends on appearing as competent Sunday as it had through those 82 games. On shoving the idea that they’re too prepubescent for the moment, the bright lights, down the throats of their detractors.
That’s all they can believe in Sunday.
“Just gotta go for it,” Caruso said. “There’s no time to be timid. There’s no time to second guess. You’ve gotta just throw your best punch and go for the win. That’s probably gonna be our message.
“Do the things that we’ve done all year to be a great team and go for it.”
Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at jlorenzi@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
