DENVER — “OT, OT, there’s never much love when we go OT,” the most famous Canadian once sang.
For the star of the Canadian national team — it was true — there was no love in overtime.
For the last Canadian player to play in and win the NBA Finals, he danced, dimed and dacoited as the higher powers took hold in the Denver Nuggets’ 113-104 Game 3 overtime victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed his last seven shots and didn’t even put one up as the Nuggets defense clamped the expected MVP, holding him to 18 points on 7-for-22 shooting.
Jamal Murray torched for 27 points and eight assists — 16 points and five assists after halftime, including free throws to tie it, a jumper to take the lead and an assist on Aaron Gordon’s equalizing 3-pointer in the final minute to send it into overtime. In that extra period, Murray kept up and led the incredible defensive effort on SGA, as he tallied four steals in the fourth quarter and overtime combined.
“He takes his game to another level, it seems like, always rises to the occasion, whatever occasion is,” backcourt mate Christian Braun said of Murray. “We know he’s going to hit shots, but he was so good defensively tonight, just in the fourth quarter, he was really good defensively when we needed him, and I think that when he’s doing that, the guys kind of rally around him.”
Rally the Nuggets did, always keeping it within nine. Every time the Nuggets finally broke through for one of the more than a dozen lead changes, the Thunder would come back and hit a shot. That is until overtime, when Denver exploded for an 11-2 period that they don’t get to or thrive in without the man they call Maple Curry.
“Jamal Murray defensively in the fourth quarter in overtime… I thought he really sat down and guarded when it mattered,” Nuggets interim head coach David Adelman said. “That’s what Jamal is. He’s so mentally tough. He’s another one of those cogs in that room that have been around and seen it, and they know when it’s winning time that what they’ve got to give, know what to give in their body and their mind to find a way to win it.”
That’s the story of this team — call them the Clutchets. For a second time in three games during this series and the fourth time in the playoffs, the Nuggets won on the final play or in overtime.
“Just continuity in it, know we’ve been there, we’ve done it at the highest level,” said Gordon, who once again delivered in the clutch. “We’ve got great players on this end, and there’s a trust, and we trust each other very much. So we know what we’re trying to get to.”
The Nuggets need 10 more wins for their ultimate goal, one that the top-seeded Thunder are still the favorites to do despite losing control of this series.
Teams that go up 2-1 after splitting on the road are 94-55 all-time. Since 2022, they’re 7-1 — with the lone loss coming at the hands of these very Nuggets, who beat the Clippers last round.
A 3-1 lead would boost Denver’s odds of reaching the Western Conference Finals from around 60% to a commanding 95%. To win Sunday, the Nuggets will need to do something that’s only happened twice to the Thunder this season — hand them two losses in a row. Maybe it’s possible, 25% of OKC’s losses have come to Denver.
“We are in the process of becoming a great team,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, whose team finished with the NBA’s best record. “We’ve checked a lot of boxes in that process. And one thing that it takes to be a great team is that you get taken to the limit in the playoffs. You’ve got to rise to the challenges that you’re confronted with. This team has made a habit of doing that repeatedly. I have full confidence we’ll continue to do that, but we have to embrace what this is. It’s the playoffs.”
But this game went to crunch time, a place the Thunder are now 18-10 — opposed to their 55-6 in games that don’t come down to the wire. Most teams aren’t good enough to keep up with OKC, much less punch them in the mouth, but the rare ones who do can find wins like the Nuggets have. Part of it is the Nuggets’ championship mettle against a very young team that hasn’t yet had a deep playoff run.
“In those moments when the game slows down, it usually comes down to your best players making shots and making plays, and I didn’t do a good enough job of that tonight,” SGA said on Friday. “It ultimately felt like a lot of settling for jumpers. I’ve been in those situations, and my number was called, and I tried to make the plays. Jalen Williams was amazing tonight. He probably could’ve touched the ball a bit more. If I make these shots, it’s not even a discussion.”
But SGA didn’t make those shots, and it is a discussion. Whereas three-time MVP Nikola Jokic had the fourth-worst playoff game of his career according to GameScore, becoming the first player in postseason history with an 0-for-10 from threes and eight turnovers — and yet it’s not a discussion. Unlike SGA, who didn’t give it over to the-best-player-on-the-floor Jalen Williams, Jokic trusted Murray to do his thing.
“I was the worst player on the court today,” Jokic said. “But we won the game, and that was the most important.”
Maybe it’s in Murray’s constant rise, maybe it’s in Gordon’s clutch, maybe it’s in Adelman’s master adjustments, maybe it’s in one-armed Michael Porter Jr.’s courage, maybe it’s in Russell Westbrook’s fire, maybe it’s in Christian Braun’s ruggedness, maybe it’s in Jokic’s selflessness — one thing is for certain 10 games into the playoffs, the talent might be less but the Nuggets still have their championship DNA and it showed up on a night when their MVP didn’t have it.
“I think (experience matters) late in games,” Adelman said. “I do believe late in the games, you can rely on what you’ve seen and felt and done, and even in losses in the past, I think you could feel like a game that maybe you played a couple years ago, and having all those experiences together, it can carry you through it, even if we lost the game tonight. Just the way we calm down those last three minutes of regulation and what you saw early in overtime, putting your energy into the defensive end and calming down and executing on the offensive end, always gives you a great opportunity to win a really tough game.”
So word to OKC, figure out your late-game strategy or hammer the Nuggets early because the way this is going will see the Thunder exit the playoffs earlier than anyone expected.
And stop leaving Aaron Gordon open late in games.
“AG must got the angels with him or something,” Porter said.
